Nationwide will be hiking the price of one of its bank accounts by £5 per month - meaning customers will have to pay an extra £60 a year.
The account is the building society's popular FlexPlus packaged account, which currently costs £13 a month - or £156 a year - to have. However, from December the price will rise to £18 a month or £216 a year - this will be for both new and existing FlexPlus customers. This is a rise of £60 a year compared to the current fee.
With the bank account, you get a range of insurance policies for you and your family including travel and mobile phone insurance, plus breakdown cover. Members also get preferential rates on loans and overdrafts.
The monthly fee on the account has not increased since 2017, however, Nationwide says the increase comes due to the "rising cost of insurance". A spokesperson for the building society said: "We have held back raising the fee for FlexPlus since 2017. However, the rising cost of insurance means we now need to make changes, taking effect from December. Even after this change, FlexPlus will continue to be one of the UK’s most competitive packaged current accounts, both in price and quality of cover."
Martin Lewis' Money Saving Expert (MSE) website says customers of the building society will need to consider whether the account was now worth it. The MSE website explained: "If you got FlexPlus for its combination of insurances, it remains hard to beat at its current cost of £13 a month.
"The main competitor is Virgin Money's Club M account, which offers similar cover – including worldwide travel insurance, UK and Europe car breakdown cover and mobile phone insurance – for £12.50 a month. In addition to being cheaper, the other key advantage of Club M is that it covers your family's gadgets, such as tablets and laptops (rather than just mobile phones)."
However, the MSE team noted that as as Nationwide has hiked costs - its closest competitor could do too, adding: "So you may want to wait and see what happens before making any moves."