Money Worries

We understand that in times of change and uncertainty, it is difficult to know what will happen. We cannot foresee if a small difficulty will become a serious problem or go away. It’s wise to take precautions, especially when we’re not sure what the consequences could be.

Often the change is outside our control. It may happen to your employer, or to another family member, or a flatmate with whom you share living costs. If you are up-to-date with your payments now, but are worried that you may not be able to pay all your bills in the future, these pages are for you. We have included information and tools so you can help yourself, and contacts for Nationwide and other organisations if you decide you would like assistance.

• If you believe you know what to do  here are some tools to help you
• If you are already late with your Nationwide payments please go to Payment Difficulties
  

The questions below will help you to decide if you need to take action to sort out your finances now. They list circumstances that might be the cause of your money worries.

Has your income gone down, or could it be reduced in the near future ?

This could be due to :

• redundancy or unemployment
• short time working
• less overtime or lower bonuses
• reduced benefits
• retirement
• maternity leave
• change in family circumstances
• bereavement
• major injury or long term illness

Are you juggling your money to pay bills?

Do you :

• not know whether you will be able to pay all your bills when they are due
• regularly pay some bills after they are due
• pay your bills by using a credit card or taking out a loan
• never seem able to reduce the balance on your credit card(s)
• never seem able to reduce your overdraft amount
• have a smaller overdraft or credit limit because your lender has reduced it
• have to borrow to pay any unexpected expense because you don’t have any savings

Are you losing control of your money?

your overdraft balance is increasing each month

your credit card balance is increasing each month

you have missed making a monthly payment on a loan or credit card

you regularly get charges on your bank account or credit card for late payments, going overdrawn or over your credit limit

your bank regularly returns cheques unpaid

you regularly ask your bank to increase your overdraft limit

you are using your credit card for cash advances

If you answered yes to any of these questions then doing something about it now may be all you need to do to make sure your money worries don’t become payment difficulties.

Here are the next steps you could take