News

• New research from Nationwide reveals that parents are expecting to spend £329 per child* on back-to-school items, up £137 (70%) compared to last year 

•  Over a third of parents (36%) claim that social media is to blame for influencing the list of ‘must-haves’ for schoolchildren, such as designer bags and insulated water bottles 

• To help parents ease the financial pressure of back-to-school shopping, money-saving expert Sue Hayward, shares her money-saving tips 

The Mortgage Works will be reducing rates by up to 0.25 percentage points across selected limited company buy-to-let and HMO products for existing customers. The new rates will be effective from tomorrow, Friday 15 August.

From today, Tuesday 12 August, homeowners who are looking for a new mortgage deal may benefit from enhanced affordability when applying to remortgage to Nationwide. That means that Nationwide will apply a different affordability calculation when eligible applicants take out a five or 10-year fixed rate product, which may enable them to borrow more.

• Nationwide announces partnership with Refuge to support customers who are survivors of domestic abuse
• Partnership is latest support offered for survivors; Nationwide also offers Safe Spaces across 400 branches
• Nationwide joins call for Individual Insolvency Register to be made private, protecting survivor details
• Domestic abuse remains widespread, with disabled women and 16-19 year-olds reporting highest levels

The Mortgage Works is tomorrow (Friday 1 August) cutting rates on selected two and five-year fixed rate products across its mortgage range.

• Nationwide becomes first financial provider to offer free support over the phone – in addition to online
• Benefits calculator service aimed at helping people apply for unclaimed benefits and tackles digital exclusion
• 2,229 households found they were eligible for over £550 a month on average since calculator launched in late June
• Nationwide opens up service for everyone to use – not just its own customers
• UK’s largest building society calls on government to make access to unclaimed benefits easier

• Rate reductions of up to 0.21 percentage points on selected products for new and existing customers
• First-time buyers, home movers and those looking to remortgage will benefit from these latest cuts
• Nationwide's lowest rate now stands at 3.74%

The results of the voting at Nationwide Building Society's Annual General Meeting (AGM) held online today, Friday 25 July 2025, are detailed below.

• 52% of Gen Z happy to ‘consciously overspend’ according to new research by Nationwide
• Gen Z spend driven by feeling good and personal brand, according to behavioural psychologist Jo Hemmings
  • o Top Gen Z splurges include: fashion, skincare (e.g., Crocs & Glass Skin), and streaming (e.g., Stranger Things)
  • o 39% overspend more in sunny weather than at Christmas – a reversal of older generations
  • o Average monthly overspend: £155 on fashion, £143 on nights out, £89 on drinks like matcha and bubble tea
• Around 15.4 million UK adults across all generations consciously overspend at least once a month
• Women more likely to overspend overall, with 33% doing so once a month, compared to 25% of men
• Over 55s are the most financially restrained, with nearly a third (30%) claiming they never overspend

The Mortgage Works will be reducing rates by up to 0.30 percentage points across selected buy-to-let products for existing customers with the new rates effective from tomorrow, Thursday 17 July.

• UK’s top lender to first-time buyers eases criteria for Helping Hand mortgage boost that lends up to 6 x income
• Follows move from Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) to enable more high loan-to-income (LTI) lending
• Sole applicants using Helping Hand now need £30k income (down £5k); joint applicants £50k (also £5k less)
• Nationwide applies to PRA to expand high LTI lending, expected to help 10,000 more buyers annually