'Green' New Year's resolutions made easy by Nationwide

Nationwide credit card sees online improvements and card holders can opt to go green by suppressing their statements.

Following the successful launch of the online mortgage application process in November 2006, Nationwide Building Society has made further improvements to its online facility. Registered internet banking customers who hold one of the Society's credit cards will be able to do more when they enter the site. Customers can now:

Request a credit limit increase and receive an instant decision, where eligible
Order replacements for damaged cards
Request a PIN reminder
Change their monthly direct debit payment amount or download a mandate to set one up.

Credit card customers have the flexibility to set their own monthly direct debit payment amount - allowing them to choose how much they pay to their credit card each month. Unlike many other providers, Nationwide does not restrict its customers to paying either 100% or a fixed minimum amount of the outstanding bill. Additionally, customers can also change their credit limit online. These improvements combined with the online credit card calculators, already available, means cardholders are now more in control of their repayment options and better able to manage their budgets.

Nationwide credit card customers can also opt to go green and cancel their paper statements and view them online instead. Customers are notified via email when their statement is ready to be viewed.

To celebrate the launch of this facility, the Society is offering customers who opt to suppress their statements the chance to win £1,000. The competition runs until 31 January 2007 and is easy to enter. Customers can find all the information they need by following the link: nationwide.co.uk/popup/paperwatch.htm. If all Nationwide's customers cancelled their paper statements, 40 million sheets of paper would be saved in just one year.

Holders of the Society's FlexAccount and card based savings accounts have been able to suppress their statements from June 2005. Since the initiative was launched, over 200,000 Nationwide customers have opted to suppress their statements.

In the last few years, Nationwide has introduced measures that reduce the levels of paper used by the Society and its customers including electronic application forms and online marketing literature.

Nationwide's Internet Banking site now allows customers to view up to 27 months' of statements online eliminating the need for paper statements. These images look exactly the same as the paper version and can be stored electronically or printed if a duplicate copy is required.

Jeremy Wood, divisional director at Nationwide said: "Nationwide is committed to reducing the impact the Society has on the environment. We have been using recycled paper on all our marketing literature and monthly statements for over three years so statement suppression is a natural step for us. With the help of our customers opting to view their statements online, we can take another step to improve our environment."