Become a Nationwide member without "windfall" signaway

MarkyMarkD · 4 August 2007 at 11:17AM

A very interesting article in today's Telegraph, pointing out anyone wanting to become a Nationwide member without the "windfall" signaway merely has to open a Portman account before the merger on 28 August.

Because Portman's sign away is only for 5 years, in 5 years' time you'd be a Nationwide member fully entitled to conversion benefits.

Nationwide and Portman deliberately covered this up in the documentation they issued prior to the merger vote, because Nationwide members who are already signed away would have been furious that newer ex-Portman members will get windfall membership rights that they have been deprived of.

And the ineffectual FSA accepted Nationwide and Portman's arguments that the cover-up was OK because it prevented the inconvenience of carpetbagging activities for the two societies.

More here: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/main.jhtml?xml=/money/2007/08/04/cmcash04.xml

I did raise all this before in this thread: http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=436127 but we now have the unhappy situation of the FSA saying the cover-up was OK.

But the essential call to action for anyone who is a Nationwide signaway member (or not a Nationwide member at all) is:

For non-Portman account holders

IF YOU WANT TO INCREASE YOUR CHANCE OF A NATIONWIDE DEMUTUALISATION WINDFALL, CLOSE YOUR NATIONWIDE ACCOUNTS AND OPEN A PORTMAN ACCOUNT FOR £250 BEFORE 28 AUGUST.

For existing Portman account holders

IF YOU WANT TO INCREASE YOUR CHANCE OF A NATIONWIDE DEMUTUALISATION WINDFALL, CLOSE YOUR NATIONWIDE ACCOUNTS BEFORE 28 AUGUST.

lemma1968 · 4 August 2007 at 12:39PM

Not heard of Portman - what type of account is it called and where does one find them? Ta!

lemma1968 · 4 August 2007 at 12:44PM

Found the Portman Building Society but what types of savings accounts are likely to qualify? Ta.;)

lemma1968 · 4 August 2007 at 12:56PM

Read the article. DOH

- Instant Access it is then.

bristolleedsfan · 4 August 2007 at 1:09PM

portman instant access account minimum opening balance of 250, if opened with cash can be instantly dropped to 100.00 as their is no requirement that minimum opening balance has to be maintained.

"If the balance falls below £250 the interest rate will be fixed at 0.10% gross/AER p.a. (0.08% net p.a.)."

as has been said on numerous occasions, nationwide only introduced the signaway so as to guarantee itself that it wouldnt face another members demutualisation challenge or a hostile takeover approach from a bank/plc, "if" nationwide ever decided to change its status it would have to disregard all signaways in order to be assured of getting the majority of yes votes in its favour.

on that basis i wouldnt recommend long standing nationwide members close their long standing nationwide accounts and open a portman account as has been suggested, although for someone who is not a nationwide member opening portman account before nationwide takeover is complete would be a prudent move imo.

Milarky · 4 August 2007 at 1:18PM

Intriguing details MarkyMarkD. The FSA is in no way a 'consumer champion' - it simply exists to prop up market failures (a sort of 'Get-out-of-jail-card' scheme for financial orgainsations) but it is doubtful that many Portman members would have switched vote, for instance, had this agreement on membership rights been publicly known - it's just a shame it didn't leek out before and embarrass the directors of both companies to have to issue 'non-denial' denials

Yes there is a window for anyone not currently a member of either society to have a punt on the Portman (£250 in a low paying account - then switching to a much better NW account after 28 September.) Anyone who is a Nationwide sign-away today could equally move all their savings to a third party institution, I suppose, and only put £250 back into Portman - so there may be a bit more than the FSA is letting on - that a number of NW members could end up largely emptying their accounts.

But, as is common knowledge, Nationwide already had so many signed-away voting members (about 60%) that if it did decide to float where would it get the votes to reach 75% 'yes' unless it pulled the 'lifetime signaway'? (There is also the fact that a float within 5 years is entirely possible.)

bristolleedsfan · 4 August 2007 at 1:26PM

we could continue with this hypothetical discussion by adding that current nationwide signaway members could close their accounts monday, open a portman account on monday, nationwide could announce on tuesday or next month plans to convert to plc staus, and say that only those who were qualified to vote at the last financial year end ( this policy was common in previous demutalisations) would qualify for free shares which would mean those who closed their nationwide accounts and opened portman accounts would miss out.

lemma1968 · 4 August 2007 at 1:27PM

The way I look at is - what have I got to lose?:p

wannabedebtfree_2 · 4 August 2007 at 1:30PM

I am a nationwide customer and have only been with them for about the past 4-5 years, I am confused by all of this (I think I may be having a senior moment!)

Can someone please explain in plain english??? I have read the article and it didnt help!!!

bristolleedsfan · 4 August 2007 at 1:32PM

lemma1968 wrote: »

The way I look at is - what have I got to lose?:p

always a good idea to keep 100.00 in any building society account imo, if u do open portman account after nationwide completes its takeover move to a better paying nationwide account, by transferring the balance into the new nationwide account.

telegraph article re nationwide e-saver was incorrect as someone needs to have a nationwide flexi account on order to have a nationwide e-saver.

wannabedebtfree_2 · 4 August 2007 at 1:34PM

And secondly most Building Societies that have converted in the past few years have put strict rules on the conversion benefits, such as number of years accounts held, balances being over a certain amount on several different dates over a period of years etc........... surely this will propbably be the case with Portman?

Become a Nationwide member without "windfall" signaway

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