Answers to Your Top 5 Questions
Welcome to Your Questions Answered where we’ll answer the most-asked questions about Nationwide Bank. Got a question? Contact us, and our Customer Care representatives will work hard to find the answer.
Q: Is Nationwide Bank a member of the FDIC?
Nationwide Bank is a member of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC). The FDIC protects you against the loss of your insured deposits in the event that an FDIC-Insured Institution fails. Deposits are insured to at least $250,000 per depositor. FDIC insurance is backed by the full faith and credit of the United States government. To learn more about the FDIC and details about coverage, please visit http://www.fdic.gov/.
Nationwide Bank’s deposit accounts are FDIC insured and offer attractive rates – including our Money Market Savings account which consistently beats the national average for savings rates. Further, Nationwide Bank has received the Bankrate.com® Top Tier award for consistently offering annual percentage yields (APYs) that were among the highest reported in 100 Highest Yields® for 3rd quarter 2008.
Click here to learn more about our Money Market Savings account. Interested in longer term savings vehicles? Our CD rates are also very competitive – click here to see our current rates.
Q: Is there an example that helps me understand how to obtain maximum
coverage from the FDIC?
It is possible to extend this coverage beyond the FDIC limit by using multiple account ownership categories as demonstrated in the chart below. For example, a husband and wife can insure up to $250,000 each in single category accounts, another $500,000 in a joint account, another $1,500,000 in a revocable trust (with three named beneficiaries), and $250,000 each in separate IRA accounts for a total of $3,000,000 in federally insured savings.
You can also extend coverage by investing across multiple banks.
Q. What do I need to open a trust account?
A trust account allows one person to manage an account on behalf of another. To open a trust account with Nationwide Bank, please call 1-877-I Bank NWSM (1-877-422-6569). You can also fax your information to us at 1-800-816-9170.
You’ll need to have this information handy when you call:
- Trust paperwork that includes the legal names of all parties (the first and last pages plus the powers for the trust)
- Name, address, date of birth, driver’s license number with issue and expiration dates for all parties involved in the trust account
It’s also important to note that as a result of a new FDIC rule, virtually any beneficiary may qualify for beneficiary coverage. Depositors can now designate a beloved friend, life partner, or relative outside of the 'immediate family group'. In addition to natural persons, the FDIC rule will cover beneficiaries that are charitable organizations or non-profit entities recognized under the Internal Revenue Code.
Q: What is Nationwide Bank’s exposure to risks in the mortgage lending
business?
As is common in the industry, Nationwide Bank maintains an investment portfolio that includes some mortgage-backed securities. However, our asset quality remains very strong. In Bankrate’s most recent evaluation of Nationwide Bank’s asset quality (Q2 2008), our Asset Quality Rating ranked in the first percentile. Additional assessment of Nationwide Bank’s asset quality on Bankrate is as follows:
ASSET QUALITY ANALYSIS
‘The institution revealed, as previously stated, a very high measure of
asset quality. Our conclusion with respect to asset quality incorporates
our analysis of data depicting regional economic conditions as well as
our computations of a relatively low June 30, 2008 non performing asset
ratio; below normal holdings of one-to-four family mortgages; and
apparently acceptable quality, or no greater than average holdings of
commercial real estate and construction loans, two categories that have,
in the past, produced credit quality deterioration within the thrift
industry and can intensify credit risk.’*
To read more on Bankrate’s assessment of Nationwide Bank, which includes a four star rating, click on the link below:
http://www.bankrate.com/brm/safesound/thrftmm.asp?fedid=1000314970
Q. I’m having trouble logging in to Online Bill Payment, my credit card or e-statements account. What’s going on?
Typically, there are two common causes for difficulty with logging in: pop-up blockers and the latest version of Internet Explorer.
Pop-up blockers. Most web browsers let you block annoying pop-up advertisements. However, online banks and credit card companies use pop-ups to help customers manage their accounts. If you’re having trouble, you’ll need to disable the pop-up blocker so you can log in to Nationwide Bank.
How do you disable your pop-up blocker? That depends on what web browser and toolbar you are using.
For Internet Explorer 6.0, for example, you would select the Tools pull-down menu, then Pop-Up Blocker, then Turn Off Pop-Up Blocker.
For Yahoo toolbar, look for the pop-up blocker icon, an image of a webpage with a shield in front of it. Click on the tiny arrow next to the icon to display the menu. If there is a checkmark next to Enable Pop-Up Blocker, click on it to make the checkmark disappear.
Internet Explorer 7. You may have trouble logging in to Nationwide Bank if you use Internet Explorer version 7. This is due to some compatibility issues with the newest version of the browser. To work around these issues, you can reinstall Internet Explorer 6 or use another web browser, such as Firefox.
*Information taken from Bankrate.com, June 30, 2008 ‘Safe and Sound Rating’ memorandum.
