Nationwide one-day warning over key letter about £50 payments

Nationwide Building Society customers have been encouraged to look out for a key letter over a £50 payment going out to millions of members.

The savings provider is paying a £50 bonus to over 12 million customers to say thank you after it acquired Virgin Money.

How each person receives the payments depends on what type of customer they are, with some people getting the amount paid directly into their bank account while others are being sent a cheque.

If you are due to receive the funds as a cheque, a key deadline is looming, as these cheques should arrive by Wednesday, May 14.

The cheques need to be cashed in by January 1, 2026, for you to receive the payment. Nationwide if you can cash the cheque into a non-Nationwide account.

Clarifying the rules, the provider said in response: "The cheque can be paid into another current account as long as the account is in your name."

How is the £50 Nationwide thank you payment being paid out?

All payments directly into bank accounts should have gone out, as these were due to arrive by April 30. For eligible members with a current account, instant access account or limited access savings account in their name where Nationwide could pay the funds here, you will have received your cash into one of these accounts.

Otherwise if you are a mortgage customer, the £50 would have been paid into the account used to pay your mortgage direct debit, with these payments also landing by April 30. All other customers will have been sent a cheque in the post.

Who is eligible for the £50 Nationwide thank you payment?

To get the £50 payment, you must have been a Nationwide member on September 30, 2024, and still be a customer when the payment is issued.

Other qualify rules you need to meet include that in the 12 months to the end of September 2024, you must have had either:

• At least one qualifying transaction on your Nationwide current account or savings account, or
• At least £100 in total in one or more of your Nationwide current accounts and savings accounts, or
• Owed at least £100 in total on one or more Nationwide residential mortgages.

You will also qualify if you completed a switch to any Nationwide current account, between July 1 and September 30, 2024, using the Current Account Switch Service.