The building society is once again offering free cash again in 2026, here’s who is eligible.
For the last three years, Nationwide has given customers a £100 bonus, and it’s returned this year. However, it won’t be given to everyone with an account. Find out if you’ll be getting the money, and additional offers announced for all customers.
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What is the Nationwide Fairer Share?
Nationwide is a building society, meaning it is member-led rather than reporting to shareholders. So when it makes profits, much of this cash goes back to customers, normally in the form of better rates. In 2025 it put £1.8bn to improving interest rates and incentives.
But since 2023, there’s also been a lump sum, shared out with eligible customers in the form of a Nationwide Fairer Share payment.
The Nationwide £100 bonus is fixed per customer, regardless of how many accounts you have. However, you have to meet certain conditions, which meant not all customers have received the cash in previous years, leaving lots of people angry they missed out.
Who can get the £100 Nationwide Fairer Share payment?
These eligibility rules have remained the same for the last four years. So as long as you took the time to cover these earlier in the year you’ll be set to get the cash this year.
Have a Nationwide current account
To get the Nationwide £100 bonus, your account must’ve been open on 31 March 2026. Though it doesn’t matter which Nationwide account you have, you do need to have been actively using it in the following ways:
| Type of current account | Additional requirements |
|---|---|
| FlexPlus | Pay the monthly fee for maintaining the account. |
| FlexOne, FlexStudent or FlexGraduate | You must have received at least one payment in or made one payment out of your account during March 2026. Any charges or interest, or adjustments made to your account balance do not count. |
| FlexAccount, FlexDirect or FlexBasic | In two of the three months of January 2026, February 2026 and March 2026, you must have received at least £500 into your current account. Transfers in from other Nationwide accounts do not count. Plus, you must have made at least two payments out of your account each month, in two of those three months. Alternatively you may have made 10 payments from the account in two of the same three months. Any charges or interest, or adjustments made to your account balance do not count as payments into your current account or payments out of your current account. You do not need to have met the above requirements if you completed a switch to your FlexAccount, FlexDirect or FlexBasic using the Current Account Switch Service between 1 January 2026 and 31 March 2026. |
Have either savings or a mortgage with Nationwide
You also have to have one of these in addition to the current account:
- A personal Nationwide cash savings account with a total of £100 or more in one or more accounts on any day in March 2026. Money held in a current account, even if it pays interest, does not count. Business savings also don’t count, nor to investment accounts.
- A Nationwide mortgage with at least £100 owing on 31 March 2026.
What about joint accounts?
The good news is that those with a joint account will count as individual members, so you’ll both get the Nationwide £100 bonus – as long as you meet the criteria.
But this does mean you’d both need the savings/mortgage to also be joint, or have your own personal savings account each. If say the current account is joint but the savings are solo, only the person with the savings account would get the payment.
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What about Virgin Money customers?
Though Nationwide has taken over Virgin Money since the last payment, accounts from that bank won’t be eligible for the Fairer Share payment this year. However, it’s expected that’ll change in 2027.
How to check if you’re eligible for the Nationwide £100 bonus
if you have online banking you’ll get a notification to say you’ll get the money when you next log in. Nationwide didn’t confirm when this would happen but said it should be ‘shortly.’ If you don’t get this you can try the online chat. Or you can check if you’re eligible on the Nationwide website, though this just takes you through the criteria rather than check your account, so if you answer incorrectly you might get the wrong answer.
Otherwise, Nationwide will contact all eligible members to tell them they’ll be receiving a Fairer Share payment.
How and when will you get the money?
As long as you met the criteria you didn’t need to do anything – the Nationwide £100 bonus was automatically paid into your current account between 10 and 30 June 2026.
You’ll need to keep your account open to get the money, so don’t switch it away before that final payment date.
Is the payment taxed?
In the terms and conditions Nationwide state that the money is an interest payment. This means it’ll count towards your personal savings allowance, and you might need to pay tax on it if you go over the tax-free thresholds.
Are there other perks?
The following are available in 2026. These are for all members.
5% fixed-rate bond
As part of this Fairer Share initiative, Nationwide has launched a Member Exclusive Bond offering an 15-month fixed-rate bond paying 5% which was available to all its existing Nationwide and Virgin Money members. It’s the highest rate for fixed savings at this time. See the latest best savings accounts here.
The most you can deposit was £10,000 and you can only get it if you’ve held a Nationwide or Virgin Money current account, savings account or mortgage account on 20 May 2026 and at the time of applying for the new bond. It can be opened in branch, online or via the Nationwide app.
You can only get one of these accounts, regardless if you qualify via both Nationwide and Virgin Money.
£175 switching bonus
New and existing members can also get a £175 switching bonus, if they don’t already use Nationwide for their everyday banking and haven’t had switching cash from Nationwide before.
