Carpetbagging, anyone?

marathon_man_3

Are the opportunities to do any carpetbagging long since disappeared now?

I still have several building society accounts with token amounts in them, usually £100 or slightly more, from back in the carpetbagging days and retain my membership in each of them. I don't particularly need the money now but can't see any more lump sums or shares arising out of them any more but will retain them anyway.

I just wondered if there any more potential instances for some decent payouts left.

Any thoughts?

jimjames

Yes, long since gone

[Deleted User]

Well, up until today, I would have said that Carpetbagging was almost dead. However, I received a nice little cheque from the Barnsley Building Society today (or Yorkshire Building Society as it is now).

This is "following the recovery of significant sums invested in two Icelandic banks which went into administration in 2008".

Maybe not a lot, I got £40, but it might be worthwhile sticking with some of your accounts for a while in case something else comes off ... if you can afford to. You don't lose anything by keeping say £100 in each account, and you MIGHT gain something.

talexuser

Not strictly carpetbagging though, more hanging on to see if any losses can be re-gained over time from an organisation. The chances of true carpetbagging payouts from mergers or takeovers is practically nil now. I closed about 15 minimal accounts some years ago just keeping a minimum Nationwide because they are by far the biggest, but it might take another generation to forget the present mess and start de-mutualisations again.

sabretoothtigger

I still have my nationwide but they are stopping anyone new being any owner yet they vote so its unlikely a majority will opt to sell for benefit of a minority

SL was the last big one. The bank boom is over really, you would do better to take the mutual money and put it into Lloyds, RBS, Barc or Stan and hope they benefit from future inflationary reduction in their debt overhang.
Also thats the reason you will lose money keeping the cash in low paid accounts

MoneySaverLog

sabretoothtigger wrote: »

I still have my nationwide but they are stopping anyone new being any owner yet they vote so its unlikely a majority will opt to sell for benefit of a minority

And that's why they did it, crafty !!!!!!s!

That and them telling little old grannies in the queue at the time when they tried to force the sale with people wanting to sell trying to get on the board and their staff telling them where to put a X to stop that from happenning.

So annoying watching that happen in the branch. Felt like saying if you'd like a nice little 4 figure bonus don't listen to Nationwide staff and put your X in the other box.

dzug1

talexuser wrote: »

, but it might take another generation to forget the present mess and start de-mutualisations again.

Has it not occurred to you that demutualisation is one (and yes only one) of the roots of the current mess?

grey_gym_sock

nationwide may be crafty about it, but at least they're carrying out their job i.e. representing their members' interests. the boards of the demutualized societies chose to put their own interests (i.e. level of remumeration) before that of their members.

mortgage holders especially did incredibly badly out of demutualization. the bonuses they were paid would have been cancelled out by the higher interest rates paid (to make money available to pay dividends) in a very short time.

savers did slightly better, because their bonuses were on average a higher percentage of account balances than were mortgage holders' bonuses. and because it's easier to move savings accounts to another provider (after you've received the bonus).

theGrinch

carpetbagging will start again...give it 10-years. Greed will return once the current mess is a memory.

talexuser

dzug1 wrote: »

Has it not occurred to you that demutualisation is one (and yes only one) of the roots of the current mess?

Of course it is, hardly needs mentioning so obvious, but history tells us that lessons are never learnt. The great depression split investment from retail banks - in time this was repealed to chase profits. Leeson broke Barings and the industry said we will put in systems to make sure it never happens again - along comes Kerviel at SocGen and Adoboli at UBS.....

princeofpounds

Personally I think it's quite amazing how the management of mutuals have managed to entrench themselves in their cushy jobs at the expense of members.

These sorts of takeover defended would be seen as shocking corporate governance in any normal corporation. Just google 'poison pill'.

The rates you get on saving and borrowing are hardly different anyway, and the member's 'bonus' stream is a fraction of the value that a sale would bring.