Nationwide to launch free cost of living telephone hotline

Nationwide Building Society will launch a free telephone hotline in August 2022 for customers affected by the cost of living crisis, according to Which?¹. The service will be staffed by trained experts drawn from across the building society's main branches, and is aimed at members experiencing money worries¹.

The hotline will be open from 9am to 4.30pm on weekdays and from 9am to noon on Saturdays, and Nationwide aims to answer calls within 10 minutes¹. The society has not published a specific launch date within August, and no telephone number for the service has been reported¹.

Alongside the hotline, Nationwide said it will contact customers it identifies as showing obvious signs of financial difficulties, with in-branch experts making the calls from August. During those calls, staff will seek to understand the customer's situation and offer advice¹. The society also said it is investing in extra training for all frontline staff, whether in branch or on the telephone, so that customers are directed to the support they need¹.

From October 2022, Nationwide opened up the opportunity for people to meet one of its cost of living experts face to face, over the phone or via video, offering financial health checks, money management advice and saving tips¹. It also runs regular virtual and in-branch workshops on managing money and avoiding financial pitfalls¹.

Separately, Nationwide current account customers with any adult, student or graduate account can earn 5% cashback on supermarket spending from 9 February 2023¹. The cashback applies to online and in-store purchases made with a Nationwide debit card at large and small supermarkets, and is capped at £10 per calendar month, per card, reached after spending £200¹. Payments are made automatically into the account used to make the purchases within six weeks of the end of the calendar month in which the cashback was accrued¹. The deal ends on 30 April 2023, or when £99m of cashback has been paid to members, whichever happens sooner¹.

Why it matters for households

The hotline gives Nationwide members who are struggling with bills a free route to speak to a trained member of staff, rather than relying on general branch contact. It is open six days a week, though not on Sundays, and closes at 4.30pm on weekdays, so anyone who needs to call during working hours may have to fit it around their job¹. The society's stated target is to answer within 10 minutes¹.

The direct contact from in-branch experts, which also begins in August 2022, means some customers will be approached by Nationwide rather than having to make the first move¹. The face-to-face, telephone and video appointments available from October 2022 extend the same support beyond the hotline¹.

The supermarket cashback is a separate measure and applies only to Nationwide adult, student and graduate current accounts, not to other account types or to customers of other providers¹. At the £10 monthly cap, a cardholder would need to spend £200 on groceries in a calendar month to receive the full amount, and the payment arrives automatically within six weeks of that month's end¹. The scheme has a fixed end date of 30 April 2023, or an earlier finish if £99m in total cashback has been paid¹.

For context on the scale of the problem the measures address, an estimated 2.3 million households missed or defaulted on at least one bill payment in January 2023, according to the Which? Consumer Insight Tracker¹.

What happens next

The hotline and the direct contact with customers identified as being in financial difficulty both begin in August 2022¹. The face-to-face, telephone and video appointments with cost of living experts began in October 2022¹. The supermarket cashback runs until 30 April 2023 or until £99m has been paid out, whichever is sooner¹. Nationwide has not reported what will happen to the hotline after that point¹.