Comments on: Nationwide open letter about online banking

By: Jon

Jon — Sat, 20 Nov 2010 09:27:23 +0000

I complained to NW several times about their withdrawn of msmoney sync. Their ears were deaf. I voted with my feet and have moved my main banking to Lloyds (better interest). I would have stayed with NW had they continued the feature. I can’t believe how bad they have become at listening to the customer.

By: Brian

Brian — Fri, 04 Jun 2010 08:08:59 +0000

Another big organisation which prides itself on “putting you first” & “Listening to you”. I moved to Nationwide in 2006 after being with Alliance & Leicester ( previously Giro ) since 1972. I left them due to their ongoing bad attitudes to any problem raised. I am now looking around for an alternative with a view to closing all my Nationwide accounts. It is a great inconvenience but sadly it is the only thing that prods these people into doing the right thing. I am told that Nationwide are working on a new internet banking system for 2011 which “may” include OFX, but no promises – too little too late.

By: Nigel

Nigel — Sat, 01 May 2010 08:44:37 +0000

I have been a Nationwide customer for over 20 years. I contacted Nationwide about providing OFX files and it was clear that they had no intention of doing so. It was a big mistake withdrawing support for MS Money without providing OFX files to allow us to continue to use that or another program. The available CSV files take too much effort to filter date ranges and convert.

I have now moved my current account and my esavings accounts to Natwest who provide OFX files in a convenient way. Well done Nationwide – you’ve lost another good and previously loyal customer.

By: Mark

Mark — Thu, 29 Apr 2010 18:08:12 +0000

The Nationwide OFX download service was extremely valuable to me for managing my financial affairs and I am really disappointed it has been withdrawn. I am sure that, with sufficient will, Nationwide could provide this without Microsoft help (the standard is available at http://www.ofx.net). So please, Nationwide, re-consider!

By: David

David — Sat, 24 Apr 2010 06:11:28 +0000

I’ll be closing my nationwide accounts becuase of this

By: Stuart Blackburn

Stuart Blackburn — Fri, 16 Apr 2010 09:00:54 +0000

I am a long time customer of Nationwide and an equally long term user of Microsoft Money.

Not only am I disappointed and angry at Nationwide’s retrograde step here, I am pretty disgruntled at Microsoft’s gradual disassociation with personal finance software.

My main two concerns with this action are:
1. Nationwide prides itself on continuing to be mutualised, and therefore ‘owned’ by its customers. Yet recent changes like this as well as changes in overdraft arrangements and charges makes me suspicious that the current management wish to wring more out of its ‘owners’, reduce costs as well as service.
2. I have looked at a number of alternatives to the now creaking MS Money, but have yet to find anything quite so simple and effective. While a number of small developers have produced money management tools, they are rather immature and clunky. (not helped by the total lack of OFX/BAnking Integration).

In an age where we can tweet/facebook/email to anyone else on the globe at the touch of a button, surely it is not beyond the wit of man to develop a comprehensive, stable, secure and effective integrated banking application?

Or perhaps the banks don’t want us to have quite so much control over our own money?

By: chris snow

chris snow — Tue, 13 Apr 2010 15:43:56 +0000

I just gave my new employer my Nationwide account so that I could use OFX. Not that it’s no longer supported, I’m going to see if I can quickly switch my account back to my old HSBC account!

By: Norman Lamont (no relation!)

Norman Lamont (no relation!) — Wed, 24 Mar 2010 22:59:58 +0000

An update – I wondered if Nationwide had been impressed with the complaints and requests for OFX and asked them if they now intended to produce OFX or QIF. Their reply:
Please accept my apologies but I must inform you Nationwide have no plans to implement the use of .OFX or .QIF files via internet banking.

We do offer the option to download account balance information in CSV (Comma Separated Value) format, these can then be imported into Excel. To download our files into a money management package you will need to convert our files into OFX (Open Financial Exchange) format. Nationwide do not support any money management software, therefore any further help you may require will need to be sourced externally.

I have logged all of your comments on our Member Service site, so we can continue to review and improve the service we offer our customers.

So that’s a ‘No’

By: Andy Wood

Andy Wood — Sun, 21 Mar 2010 12:59:45 +0000

I’m another long term Nationwide customer who is extremely disappointed by the withdrawl of this functionality. Bankers get fat sitting on our money, the customers half of the deal is supposed to be convenience and good service………..
Sometimes voting with your feet (or wallet) is the only way!

By: Grahamw

Grahamw — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 14:26:40 +0000

In a way Nationwide did me a favour by withdrawing support for MS Money. I now use ACEmoney in conjunction with MT2OFX to do the conversion from CSV to OFX. ACEmoney is superior to MSmoney, I tried it for a couple of weeks and because it was so good and easy to use purchased a licence for $30. The only drawback is that you have to download the CSV from Nationwide and then do the conversion, after doing this two or three times it is dead easy and any duplicate entries are automatically dealt with by ACEmoney.