Millions of Nationwide customers will soon learn if they are set to receive an additional £100 Fairer Share bonus this week. The building society has been granting £100 bonus payments to millions of its customers annually for the past three years. The announcement regarding the potential 2026 payment is expected to be made on Thursday, May 21, alongside the release of its latest full-year financial results. Nationwide will also outline the specific eligibility criteria for the one-off bonus distribution.
In previous years, customers needed to hold a qualifying current account, in addition to a savings account or mortgage with Nationwide, to be eligible for the bonus. For savings accounts, a minimum of £100 needed to be saved, while mortgage customers were required to have at least £100 remaining to pay off by the end of March.
Different criteria applied to accounts such as FlexOne, FlexStudent, or FlexGraduate, where customers had to receive or make a payment in or out of their account during March, unless a switch was completed using the Current Account Switch Service between January and March. FlexAccount, FlexDirect, or FlexBasic account holders had to receive £500 in their account during two of the three months of January, February, and March, and make a certain number of payments from their account.
It is important to note that the qualifying conditions may vary from previous years, but the guidelines from the 2025 scheme provide a general idea of how it operated. If the Fairer Share bonus is confirmed and customers meet the criteria, the bonus will be automatically deposited into their Nationwide account. Last year, Nationwide unveiled the Fairer Share initiative in May, with payments distributed in June and July.
The bonus amount is categorized as savings for tax purposes, and individuals can earn up to £1,000 in savings interest per tax year before being subject to tax. Last year, Nationwide distributed £400 million to over four million customers following a record pre-tax profit of £2.3 billion. The year before that, £385 million was awarded to 3.85 million recipients.
