★★★★★
Finder expert rating
★★★★★
Customer satisfaction


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One of the few building societies left, Nationwide offers better conditions to its current account holders than most banks as well as 24/7 customer service and a widespread network of branches if you like sorting things out in person.
It’s also the winner of our Banking Customer Satisfaction Awards, for the best high street bank.
Nationwide has a decent range of current accounts you can choose among, although it doesn’t offer any premium account options for high-end customers.
The main benefit of Nationwide’s incentive accounts is that they pay an interest rate (yes, you’ve heard that right) on balances up to £2,500. You can choose between a free account with a great introductory offer and an account with loads of insurance benefits that also pays more in the long run in return for a monthly fee.
Learn more about reward and incentive accounts
You can get up to £3,000 of fee-free overdraft with Nationwide’s student account plus a nice little interest rate on your balance. If you’re after free railcards and discounts, compare accounts from other institutions – student accounts have the best benefits, so you may as well enjoy them until uni’s over and you’re thrown into your not-so-exciting adult life.
Learn more about student accounts
With Nationwide FlexOne, children aged 11-17 can get an early start at managing their finances and also earn some interests on their balance. If you have smaller kids, try comparing children current accounts – with some institutions they can open one when they’re as young as eight.
Learn more about children’s accounts
To open an account with Nationwide, you’ll have to provide the following information:
You can open a Nationwide account online or by visiting a branch – if you apply online, you may be asked to pop into a branch to provide proof of identity.
Depending on how you manage your day-to-day spending, you’ll need different things from your current account. For example, you may want to think about the following:
Depending on which features are most important to you, there will be accounts that suit your needs best… so compare, compare, compare.
Nationwide currently offer current accounts with the some of the highest available interest rates. If you’re looking to earn interest on an in-credit balance, these accounts are worth investigating.
Yes! There’s no limit to the number of accounts you can open. Remember though to check out the competition and be wary of opening multiple accounts just to use features like overdrafts.
Yes, it does! Nationwide’s FlexDirect, FlexPlus, FlexStudent and FlexOne current accounts all pay some kind of interest on balances.
You can find them on Nationwide’s website here.
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Valentina Cipriani is a writer at Finder UK. She writes news, features and guides about banking and credit cards, helping people to improve their financial lives. She holds an MA in International Journalism and loves taking complicated topics apart and giving them back to the readers in a clear and easy fashion.
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