Whether you want to send money to a building society account, or receive money into your own account at a building society, the likelihood is you’re going to need to know your roll number. But what exactly is a building society roll number?
In another of our ‘understanding banking series’ we’re going to explain roll numbers. What they are, when they should be used, where to find them, and why they exist in the first place.
A building society roll number, is a unique identifier associated with a member’s account at a building society. The roll number is crucial for account identification, security, transaction tracking, and communication with the building society. It plays a significant role in managing financial transactions and ensuring account security.
Roll numbers can be made up of alphanumeric characters, for example ABC 1234567 XYZ or just numbers such as 1234567891. The number of characters often varies depending on the Building Society.
Building societies are mutuals, meaning they are run and owned by their members. As owners of the building society, members would vote in management elections, and on policies at annual meetings.
To be able to vote, members needed to be on the on the building societies ‘roll of members.’ As building societies grew, and the number of members increased it was necessary to assign numbers to these members for identification purposes. These were called ‘roll numbers.’ They were assigned to a member when they joined building society, and used not just voting but also to keep track of a members transactions.
No. A sort code is a 6-digit number that identifies a specific bank and branch. The numbers are usually given in pairs and separated by dashes such as 60-02-08, and are issued by the Cheque and Credit Clearing Company Limited (C&CCC). As building societies were traditionally not members of the UK clearing system they needed their own method of identification. Thus the roll number was created.
No. These days most (but not all) building societies offering current accounts have obtained sort-codes and account numbers via the clearing system, and as such no longer use roll numbers to identify accounts. Payments to these building societies are made in the same way as a normal bank account, using the persons name, account number and sort code.
For certain types of accounts (especially savings accounts) roll numbers do still exist, and must be entered as a reference when paying into that account from an external bank.
Nationwide has mostly done away roll numbers. If you’re a current account customer you can send and receive payments using your account name, sort code, and account number, just like with any regular bank account.
Some Nationwide saving accounts though do still use roll numbers.
It’s unlikely you still have a passbook, but if you do your roll number should appear there on the inside cover. More likely is that you access your account online. As such, you should be able to find your roll number in your online banking. It should also be included in any letter or statements (online or paper) you receive from the building society.
If you still can’t find it, or aren’t sure that is, we’ve found a message to the building society’s customer support on Twitter usually gets a quick response. Nationwide in particular is very active on social media and quick to respond to customer queries.
Nationwide and Cumberland Building Society are the only two building societies offering current accounts. Norwich and Peterborough used to, but this was discontinued after it was bought by Yorkshire Building Society.
Neither Nationwide or Cumberland Building Society use roll numbers for current accounts.
Understanding banking is a series of articles by Money Saving Answers that help explain a number of banking concepts in plain simple English. Our aim to cover topics and answer common questions related to everyday banking. From questions such as What’s the account name for a bank account? to what is a Lifetime ISA?
