Coventry Building Society: Child Benefit Account question

Caixta

My Coventry Building Society Family 1st Child Benefit Account will reach its second anniversary in February 2007.

At that time, will I be able to close that account, investing that money elsewhere, and start up a new Family 1st Benefit Account? I understand that I would be starting again at zero and could only have my Child Benefit paid into it. I would like to continue earning the best rate on my future Child Benefit payments.

Or is this a once-only offer?

Any advice on this would be appreciated.

ReportInvestor

Interesting. Keep us posted.

You could be a trailblazer .

Presumbably you are going to close it anyway "to continue earning the best rate " so you might as well give it a go after a short gap.

Caixta

Right, I got in touch with the Coventry and here is their reply:

"Thank you for your message.

You are able to close your existing account and open a new Family first saver and benefit account at any time. To close your account you will need to phone our Customer Service Centre on 08457 665522 where one of our advisors will be happy to help you.

The Centre is open Monday to Friday 8.00am - 8.00pm, Saturday 9.00am - 5.00pm, Sunday 10.00am - 4.00pm. Calls cost 5p per minute maximum for BT customers. Non-BT customers should contact their service providers as costs may vary. To maintain a quality service, we may monitor or record phone calls.


Claire Hadlum
CSC - Customer Support"



Sounds encouraging.

Here's what springs to mind:

*Pity it's an 0845 number, but maybe I could dig up a geographic one.

*Closing the account then opening a new one could mean losing out on any potential carpet-bagging windfall if they stop being a building society in the next few years: I think I heard that you need to have been a member of a Building Society for at least five years when demutualisation takes place. However, it may not happen anyway, and a bird in the hand (higher interest) is worth two in the bush (vague hope of windfall payment).

*Why have I been hanging around beyond the first year to wonder about this? I could have been missing out on a whole 1% of interest. But then again...

*I'll need to find a new home for the money that has been building up in the existing account, (I cannot make payments of my own into this type of account, the only payments allowed are the Child Benefit payment direct from HM Revenue and Customs) but I doubt if I can do as well as the 6.25% interest it's getting at the moment. Is it best, on balance, to wait until the 2 years are up?

*Whenever I do decide to close the account and open a new one, I will have a four week window to do it, as this is the frequency of the payments. I wonder whether this will be enough for the Revenue to process my new account number and move the payment to the new account.

Any other thoughts would be gratefully received.

Robert_Sterling

IMHO Coventry is far more likely to be involved in a merger ( Charity clause does not apply ) than it is to be taken over. Nevertheless you are making a good point with regard to continuity of membership.