About midata

Nationwide allows you to download your current account transactions.

You can then send this file to a comparison provider. They will analyse your file and may make suggestions about how to manage your account. This includes switching to another current account provider.

Often these comparison providers will be price comparison websites, or consumer finance information websites.

Currently, you can only download midata for our current accounts. But we may include other products in future.

Before you download your data and send it to a comparison provider, there are some important things you should know about midata.

Before sending a comparison provider your valuable data, consider the following:

• Are you sending your midata file to a secure page on their website?
• How long will they keep your data?
• Will they sell or pass your data on to others?
• Are they regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA)?
• Have they signed up to the Code of Practice?

You should be able to find the answers to these questions on the provider's website.

To protect your personal information, some details will be blanked out in certain transactions. This is to protect your data. It won’t affect the results you receive from comparison providers.

Once you have downloaded your file, review its contents to make sure you’re happy with the data you’ll be sharing.

We encourage you to check your file before you send it, but if you’re not happy to share the data it contains, do not send it on. Do not edit or change your file, as that could affect the results you get. It might also cause the file to be rejected.

midata is covered by a Code of Practice. This applies to participating current account providers and comparison providers.

Nationwide has no control over the results you will get.

The Code of Practice commits comparison providers who have signed up to give accurate results. However, these may be affected by a number of factors, including:

• Using your current account in a certain way within the 12-month period in the data doesn’t mean you’ll use it in the same way in the following 12 months.
• Results may be affected if you have less than 12 months' worth of data in your midata file. The less data you have, the more assumptions the comparison provider will make, and the less accurate your results may be,.
• When assessing your most likely future transaction pattern, comparison providers may discount some transactions that they assume are large, one-off payments. However, if these exceptional transactions do happen again in the future, your results may not predict those future transactions.
• midata results are ranked according to the financial benefits (or costs) that the comparison provider suggests you might earn (or pay) from that current account. This system works well for fees and charges, but is less effective where the value you might get from a current account is harder to determine. For example, we believe that Nationwide offers great customer service, but that would not be included in any purely financial results that midata may show.
• Nationwide offers members who hold their main bank account with us better rates on other Nationwide financial services. This is also not included in the midata rankings.

All of this means that you have to consider the entire service you get from Nationwide (or your current account provider) before acting on your midata results.

A comparison provider will base its suggestions for you on transactions you’ve made in the past. They’ll use these to make assumptions about how you’ll use your current account in future. This is not an exact science. So, before you consider whether to switch current account to a new provider, check the features and benefits you currently have with your Nationwide current account.

Comparison providers may rank current account providers in order of the financial benefit you could earn if you switch. However, any non-financial benefits you currently enjoy – such as good customer service, convenient branch location, or loyalty rewards – will not be reflected in this ranking.

Benefits may also include one-off switching incentives from the current account provider, such as a cash sum, but think carefully about whether the account is right for you in the longer term.