“Foolish” assertion that banks are better than building societies

Commenting on the Fool.co.uk’s assertion that banks are better than building societies, Nationwide Building Society’s executive director, Stuart Bernau, says: “We completely reject Fool’s assertion that banks are better than building societies. A key objective of the banks is to please their shareholders whereas at Nationwide we are able to focus on delivering long term good value to our members through highly competitive products and services. While some banks deliberately price their products to achieve an entry in best buy tables, many of these products fail to offer long-term good value once the introductory deal has ended or additional fees and charges are taken into account.

“For example, Nationwide’s credit card is the only card available which offers free usage abroad and a positive order of payments. Similarly, we offer long-term good value on our savings products by not luring customers in with introductory deals only to end them soon after the account has been opened. Equally, our mortgage products do not have higher lending charges or other unnecessary fees.

“Nationwide offers a different proposition to the banks. We are about offering long-term good value to all of our members because short-term gimmicks don’t deliver a lasting benefit to consumers.”