According to industry experts, the largest building society in the UK has withdrawn a clause on its savings accounts that had been criticised as ‘sneaky’ by many savers.

Personal and business bank account provider Nationwide has announced that it will refund all savers that might have suffered from lost interest due to the clause as long as they closed their account on September 1 or later.  The building society had been under the gun recently for depriving its MySave Online Plus customers of as much as a month’s worth of interest.

The clause in question would strip all but 0.1 per cent from the building society’s 3.12 per cent interest rate on the account in the month a saver closed the account, even though savers were permitted one withdrawal without penalty every year, according to the terms of the savings product.  However, the media exposed the practice, prompting Nationwide to instead publicise the clause in a much more prominently displayed spot for customers agreeing to apply for the saver.

Now, the building society has taken an additional step, removing the clause completely.  Nationwide has also decided to refund all customers who closed their accounts from September 1 as long as they had not already used their one fee-free withdrawal for the year.

MySave account holders will be able to close their accounts from now on without penalty, provided they have a penalty-free withdrawal available to them.  The newly revised policy applies for both new and existing savers, and all will be instead be given an accurate accounting of their interest pro rata to the day they close their account.