Is Nationwide right to restrict withdrawals?

April 12, 2010 4:56 pm by Lucy Warwick-Ching

Nationwide Building Society will soon prevent some of its customers from making cash withdrawals of less than £100 from its counters for the second time in 12 months.

FlexAccount, CashBuilder and Cash Card customers will not be able to withdraw less than £100 from counters from June 7 in a bid to cut down on queue lengths. This follows the ban on counter withdrawals under £30 last November.

They are not the only bank to do this. Santander brought in a similar restriction on counter withdrawals under £30 last year and will roll out the same rule for its Alliance & Leicester customers in August.

But while some customers will be cheering about the move – aimed at cutting queues down – it will hurt those individuals, more often than not the elderly, with basis bank accounts who struggle to remember their PINs. It will also harm those people who need to withdraw small sums in order to budget effectively.

Tell us what you think about this new policy?

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Lucy Warwick-Ching is the FT’s new Money Online Editor and has been a UK Companies reporter covering tobacco, pubs and leisure companies as well as the deputy editor on House and Home.

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