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Carpetbagging - no longer worth it?

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Comments

  • Primrose
    Primrose Posts: 10,712 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper I've been Money Tipped!
    As an afterthought to my previous post, the only benefit I can see in keeping them open is if you're likely to have a chunk of money to save which could take advantage of a decent fixed rate bond a society is offering, which would save you the hassle, as an existing member, of going through all the money laundering process.
  • nomorekids
    nomorekids Posts: 475 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 100 Posts Name Dropper Combo Breaker
    I am about to close a whole load of £100 accounts. You have to remember you are losing around £3-£4 per year at least in these low interest accounts and given that no merge that has paid out has happened for several years, the opportunity of gaining half decent interest is already a loss of £15 ish quid per account for me already. It's just not worth it, even to be classed as an existing customer. I was recently refused a regular saver account from the Nottingham building society despite being a customer since 1998 simply because I wrote to say I didn't live near a branch but would still like to open a branch account. Needless to say Nottingham is in the pile to close.
    If you want to be rich, never, ever have kids ;)
  • hethmar
    hethmar Posts: 10,678 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Combo Breaker Car Insurance Carver!
    Ive been checking on my "carpet bagging" accounts too and some are on less than 1% interest but having said that, its me being lazy that is at fault. This week I moved some over to 3.5% bonds in the same BS and I guess Ill keep them there a bit longer - unlikely to get the big windfalls but at least its spreading the risk around a bit. Ive also moved some to the Lloyds 4% vantage accounts.
  • claire07
    claire07 Posts: 671 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 500 Posts
    This thread has made me really think I should stop being idle and close some of my accounts as it seems so unlikely there will be any future benefit. However, are there are any accounts people are going to hang on to 'just in case'. I presume it's ok to clear out the smaller societies but what about the larger ones?
  • kostigovs
    kostigovs Posts: 215 Forumite
    cepheus wrote: »
    Like to know which other one you can fix £5K for no more than 3 years.

    NS&I index linked is good but could go anywhere.

    http://www.moneysupermarket.com/savings/compareresults.aspx?enquiryId=25035159


    From what I've seen it's as good as you can get. In fact I haven't seen better
  • DemiDee
    DemiDee Posts: 529 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 100 Posts Combo Breaker
    Thanks so much for all the useful feedback in this thread. I think that the overiding advice is to get rid of all these passbooks and put the money somewhere with a decent interest rate. Even though I've had most of them since 1997 and have been getting interest updates for tax purposes, I fear that when I do close them, they will have been classed as 'dormant'. Also, since some of the once local branches have closed, I am not even sure whether I should send the passbook in the post with a covering letter, or wait until I can get into a branch (could be a long time!).
    claire07 wrote: »
    This thread has made me really think I should stop being idle and close some of my accounts as it seems so unlikely there will be any future benefit. However, are there are any accounts people are going to hang on to 'just in case'. I presume it's ok to clear out the smaller societies but what about the larger ones?

    Me too, Claire! I did once think about holding onto the Chelsea account since just after I opened mine, it went up to '£5000 minimum to open' because of all the carpetbaggers. I was at that time convinced that Chelsea, the richest society per member, were going to demutualise, but alas..nothing has happened. I imagine that a previous poster is right in saying that things have changed and it's likely that we will no longer see windfalls in the future :-(
  • EarthBoy
    EarthBoy Posts: 3,248 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Name Dropper
    DemiDee wrote: »
    I did once think about holding onto the Chelsea account since just after I opened mine, it went up to '£5000 minimum to open' because of all the carpetbaggers. I was at that time convinced that Chelsea, the richest society per member, were going to demutualise, but alas..nothing has happened.

    The "richest society per member" as you describe it, got into a financial mess and had to be rescued by Yorkshire Building Society. Since 1 April 2010 Chelsea no longer exists in its own right. It's now just a trading name of the Yorkshire.
  • DemiDee
    DemiDee Posts: 529 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 100 Posts Combo Breaker
    Thanks Earthboy - in that case, I just hope I will get my money back! This has definitely made me decide to cash in all my books, before it's too late (if it isn't already).
  • sabretoothtigger
    sabretoothtigger Posts: 10,036 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Photogenic Combo Breaker
    Didnt some of these gamble on usa sub prime debt.
    How did the regulations get so lax that they can do that, I thought they were only allowed to lend what they had in savings but apparently not
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