Windfalls

[Deleted User]

Over the last fifteen years or so, I slowly opened savings accounts with most of the building societies in the UK. This was in the hope of gaining a windfall payment should the society merge with another society or become a PLC.

I think the last windfall I had was when the Catholic Building Society merged with the Chelsea Building Society, which was a number of years ago now.

I don't have any bad accounts as such, as most of them are bonds, ISAs or regular savers. There are some where the interest rate is below 1%, but not many.

So, my question is simple, is it worth hanging on to all these accounts (I have over 35), in the vague hope of a windfall payment, or is it better to amalgamate into high interest accounts with a handful of societies?

jayship

I think the time for carpet beggers is all but gone. Very unlikely to get windfalls in the current market

McKneff

I did this with Nationwide and Newcastle Building Society,

I will probably just take the few hundred pounds out of them and blow the lot.

Masomnia

None of the old building societies that changed to banks continue to exist in an independent form, all ran into trouble and were taken over.

Halifax taken over and bailed out, Northern Rock nationalized, Bradford and Bingley nationalized, Abbey National and A & L taken over by Santander after running into trouble...

I can't imagine there being any appetite for demutualization in any other BS any time soon.

gadgetmind

I mopped up 10s of 1000s of £s in the 90s via carpetbagging, but those days are long gone.

Move on.

DetainWino

You can pick one of Cheshire, Dunfermline, Derbyshire and Nationwide and close the other 3. Be sure to pick one whereby you're now past the charitable assignment period/conditions. These 4 are now all Nationwide BS.