What's KR building society like?

castle96

thanks......

oldagetraveller

I have had in the past and still have a fixed cash i.s.a. with Kent Reliance and always found them very good. All postal accounts and dealt with very quickly. I transferred an i.s.a. from them to Julian Hodge a couple of years ago and it was completed in 5 days, maybe a lesson to other financial institutions there? They have always replied very quickly to e- mails. Even the offshore (I'm not a fan of that either!) C.Services have been knowledgeable and efficient when contacted by 'phone.

baby_boomer

The service (often via India) is fine.

The exhorbitant salary for the Chief Executive is ludicrous and a stain on the tradition of mutuality .

IIRC it was he who said that he couldn't see the need in the UK for more than 4 building societies.

naseby_2

i have a 9 month fixed rate bond and everything is fine. Received my May interest on the last day of May.

Essex123

baby_boomer wrote: »

The exhorbitant salary for the Chief Executive is ludicrous and a stain on the tradition of mutuality .

IIRC it was he who said that he couldn't see the need in the UK for more than 4 building societies.

I'm not a huge fan of Mike Lazenby but you can look at this many ways - yes he is paid £535k in the last financial year, however he is running a £2.26bn building society on a cost ratio of 0.39%. He has been instrumental in driving down relative costs in that business over the last few years.

Compare that to the most similar sized society - Nottingham.

Nottingham BS has assets of £2.60bn, and a cost ratio of 0.73% - thats 0.34% more than Kent Reliance. If Nottingham ran at the same level of effieciency as KR, it would save getting on for £9m a year in admin expenses by my calculations. Thats a lot of money which would be better directed into better rates rather than admin costs.

Yes, Mike Lazenby is well paid, but members are (IMHO) getting value out of the transformation and strategy he has driven.

savetilibleed

DrDolittle wrote: »

Really poor looking website and on hold for ages on the phone.

What are people's experiences? Only interested in their fixed term bond so would apply by post.

If you are after a bond then Barnsley BS have a 1 year telephone or online bond at 3% and if you want you can have monthly interest. They are owned by Yorkshire BS. If you phone them you get through quickly. I phoned recently as you get through to YBS and quickly. They were able to confirm a faster payment I sent to them (Barnsley) would be credited that day.

savetilibleed

DrDolittle wrote: »

Incidentally are you and others happy with Julian Hodge? That's another place I was considering using for a fixed rate bond.

My wife had a Capital Millenium bond with them and they were OK.

DrDolittle_2

savetilibleed wrote: »

If you are after a bond then Barnsley BS have a 1 year telephone or online bond at 3% and if you want you can have monthly interest. They are owned by Yorkshire BS. If you phone them you get through quickly. I phoned recently as you get through to YBS and quickly. They were able to confirm a faster payment I sent to them (Barnsley) would be credited that day.

Really helpful, thanks. Will check that out.

savetilibleed

DrDolittle wrote: »

Really helpful, thanks. Will check that out.

No problem. If you do apply to BBS, you might well find you have to send in ID, unless you have an account with YBS. You can quote your YBS account number and that will do (or at least it did when I applied for BBS online saver last year).

They have a 4 year bond at 4.3% too.

A._Badger

I had an ISA with them for a year (rate tart, I know!). Transferred in without a hitch and transferred out again, likewise. I've actually wished they'd come up with better rates as I liked dealing them.

Hope that's some help.