Nationwide to phase out passbooks from February 2025

Nationwide Building Society will phase out passbooks in their current form from early February 2025, This is Money can exclusively reveal.

A concerned staff member says the process of phasing out the passbooks altogether is now underway, a move now confirmed by Britain’s largest health insurance company.

Nationwide is no longer offering new passbook accounts. It says only 2 percent of its 16 million customer base currently uses them, or about 120,000 members.

Passbook savings accounts come with a physical notebook that allows the account holder to record deposits and withdrawals.

Nationwide said it is taking the opportunity to “modernise” the passbooks in a process that will take place over seven months until February 2025.

Customers who wish to continue using a passbook will instead receive a “savings wallet”, which contains a Nationwide card that can only be used at a Nationwide branch.

The wallet will also contain a space for printed “mini-statements”, which customers will receive when they deposit or withdraw money at a branch, This is Money understands.

Statements can be stored in the wallet so that customers have a record of their transactions, but no longer in a book format like the old passbooks.

Customers who have a passbook will not be able to use it in its current form after the beginning of February 2025.

Customers who do not want the new version of the passbooks will only be able to use their old passbooks until the beginning of February 2025.

This does not mean that your account will be closed and customers will still be able to use it.

Nationwide will notify customers that it will replace the old passbooks with a new statement-based version beginning later this month and will communicate the changes.

The building society will also employ temporary staff within the branch network to support staff with the transition from the old passbooks to the new ones, as it does at other times of the year, including during the ISA season.

Elderly and vulnerable customers are said to be supported through changes to branch staff over the course of seven months.

Nationwide has come under fire for refusing to give its 16 million members a say in its controversial takeover of Virgin Money.

Its annual general meeting will be held shortly, and members will be able to give their opinions until 15 July.

A Nationwide source said chief executive Debbie Crosbie was “in a mad rush” to reorganise the company’s network.

A Nationwide spokesman said: “We don’t acknowledge it at all. We have made our promise to the subsidiary and nothing will change.”

Nationwide currently has 605 branches, making it the largest branch network on the high street.

The source added: ‘Many of my clients have their pensions paid into their passbooks, many of them are older people, but some are younger, some in the vulnerable category, and the only way they can manage their money is by going to the counter to withdraw their cash.

‘They like to see the transaction in the book and find it easy to understand, they don’t want a paper statement.

‘The booklet is about 10 pages long and easy to use and store, and there are several reasons why they use the counter instead of an ATM.

‘This includes people with disabilities, those with the onset of dementia or autism, and those who have been scammed: we treat everyone with dignity and courtesy.’

The Nationwide source added that the rush to phase out savings accounts could lead to “mountains of complaints”.

A Nationwide spokesman said: ‘We are modernising passbooks rather than scrapping them, but while they are changing, branch banking is not.

‘We maintain the benefits that our passbook customers value most: in-person service and having a physical record of transactions.

“As the UK’s largest building society, we are investing in our systems so we can deliver the products and services our customers expect from a modern mutual.”

Do you work at a Nationwide branch and are concerned about the changes or are you a passbook user worried about the move? Contact us: editor@thisismoney.co.uk