why bank with a Building Society ?

Archi_Bald

IGraham wrote: »

My local Building Societys are Yorkshire Building Society, Nationwide, Britannia, Newcastle Building Society

I have accounts with all of them bar Britannia/Coop, plus the ones Gromitt mentions. It's horses for courses.

Gromitt wrote: »

Yes they are a usable alternative.

But would I exclusively use a building society? No.

I take advantage of whatever is available regardless of whether its a bank or a bs. So I have accounts with TSB, LLoyds, Santander, Nationwide, BoS, Halifax, etc.

maniacmartin

noh wrote: »

Oh yes they (Nationwide) are! (a clearer).

http://www.chequeandcredit.co.uk/about_us_and_our_members/our_members/

My understanding was that they clear their own UK payments, but use HSBC to handle international payments.

I 'bank' with Nationwide, not because they're a building society, but because they have a branch near my workplace where I can pay in cash and cheques, their online banking is decent and I find their branch and call-centre staff to be helpful.

innovate

Archi_Bald wrote: »

I have accounts with all of them bar Britannia/Coop, plus the ones Gromitt mentions.

Me too, mainly for the interest they pay.

Gromitt

gt94sss2 wrote: »

'Normal' banks publish accounts as well - and they are publicly available for anyone else to see.

Yes, but what I meant was that Nationwide actually pretty them up into a booklet and post them to their members rather than having to visit companies house for the latest filed accounts, or do other banks provide them on request?

innovate wrote: »

Me too, mainly for the interest they pay.

I'm still not aware of any other bank or building society that offers 2% interest on an instant access account that has no restrictions and isn't a current account. The closest seems to be 1.50% for accounts that you open now.

EarthBoy

Gromitt wrote: »

Yes, but what I meant was that Nationwide actually pretty them up into a booklet and post them to their members rather than having to visit companies house for the latest filed accounts, or do other banks provide them on request?

Companies send summaries of their annual reports and accounts to their shareholders. You only have to contact Companies House if you are not a shareholder, although many of the larger companies, including banks, provide the full reports on their websites. e.g:

Lloyds Banking Group:

http://2012.lloydsbankinggroup-annualreport.com/

RBS Group:

http://www.investors.rbs.com/download

Barclays:

http://group.barclays.com/about-barclays/investor-relations/annual-reports

HSBC:

http://www.hsbc.co.uk/1/2/about-us/reports-and-accounts?HBEU_dyn_lnk=AboutUs_ReportsAccounts_Link

Santander:

http://www.santander.com/csgs/Satellite?appID=santander.wc.CFWCSancomQP01&canal=CSCORP&cid=1278677300060&empr=CFWCSancomQP01&leng=en_GB&pagename=CFWCSancomQP01%2FPage%2FCFQP01_PageAgrupEnlaces_PT14