News

• Survey from Nationwide looks at the impact of Christmas spending across different household incomes 

• Comes as Nationwide partners with Action for Children to support their Secret Santa campaign to help Britain’s most vulnerable children feel the magic of Christmas 

• Parents spend average of £673 to fund Christmas, reducing to £264 for those with a household income of £15k or below 

• 42% of parents say Christmas negatively impacts their mental health, rising to 53% of those earning £15k or less 

• 12% of parents plan to borrow money - 16% of households with incomes of £15k or less will be in debt due to Christmas 

• But…two thirds of all parents surveyed agree togetherness is the most important part of the season 

• Four in ten (43%) will maintain their savings in 2026, with 14% aiming to save up to £2,000
• Almost half of Millennials (49%) plan five‑figure savings (£10k+), but most feel stressed saving (69%)
• Emergency funds (43%), holidays (36%), retirement (23%) amongst top reasons to save in 2026
• 62% of 25-34s would consider social media trends like ‘loud budgeting’ and ‘100 envelopes’

• New research¹ from Nationwide and Dementia UK shows 60% of men aged 18-34 feel prepared vs 32% of those aged 45-54 and 30% of men 55-plus
• Just 37% of men aged 55-plus would feel comfortable providing dementia care, rising to 44% for men aged 45-54
• Nationwide and Dementia UK urge more men to get support as data for dementia clinics - held in Nationwide branches - reveals they account for just 25% of appointments booked
• Main reasons men aren’t comfortable seeking support include sharing feelings, fear of burden and embarrassment
• Dementia UK highlights middle age can be “challenging and tiring” due to often caring for young children and older family although in general stigma and fear of judgement is prevalent
• Research comes ahead of Christmas - a time dementia often becomes noticeable due to time spent together

• Nationwide partners with Invest in Women Taskforce (IWT) and provides £25 million in funding¹
• Funding to support female-led businesses to drive economic growth in the UK and close investment gap
• Partnership builds on Nationwide’s commitment to make banking fairer and more inclusive

• In the lead-up to Christmas, Nationwide is expecting 20.6 million transactions on Friday 12 and Saturday 13 December, which is 6.39% higher than the same dates in December 2024.
• A peak number of 10.7 million transactions are predicted on the 20 December as people rush to finish their festive shopping*.
• 21.16 million transactions are expected across the weekend before Christmas, which is 2.96% higher than the 20.55 million transactions forecasted in 2024**.
• Nationwide also shares top tips to avoid scams in a busy festive period

• Rate reductions of up to 0.21 percentage points for new and existing customers
• These latest changes follow on from the wide-ranging mortgage rate cuts made at the end of last week
• First-time buyers, home movers and those looking to remortgage or switch again benefit from these cuts
• Nationwide’s lowest rate now 3.58% for new and existing customers looking to move home

The Mortgage Works will be reducing rates by up to 0.20 percentage points across selected buy-to-let, limited company buy-to-let and HMO products for existing customers. The new rates will be effective from tomorrow, Thursday 4 December.

• Nationwide customers made over 31.2 million transactions across the weekend, which is 5.8% higher than the weekend period in 2024, which saw 29.4 million transactions.
• Black Friday on 28th November 2025 saw a record of 11.9 million transactions, which is 8.7% higher than last year’s Black Friday on 29th November 2024, which recorded 10.9 million transactions.