Become a Nationwide member without "windfall" signaway

bristolleedsfan

cheggers wrote: »

Any news if Cheshire are to merge with anyone, I could do with a windfall from them next:rotfl: :rotfl:

im suprised cheshire BS hasnt been swallowed up already, imo swap cheshires awful customer service and better than some savings rates with britannias excellent customer service and woefull savings rates, together with brittanias apparent love of branches and their appears to be the basis for an excellent mutually rewarding especially if there was a flat rate payout. :beer:

sadly both societies have relatively young chief executives so have vested interest in the societies remaining seperate.

portman had their eyes on cheshire not all that long ago http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4158/is_20060331/ai_n16200420

baby_boomer

MarkyMarkD wrote: »

That's the fundamental flaw of mutuality - it only makes sense, and it is only fair, if the organisation stays mutual forever.

In fact even then it's not fair, because mutuals don't trade at a break-even, meaning that they are constantly taking money from present members and giving it to future members - or not, if there's a signaway, whereby they are taking money from present new members and giving it to charity.

Very true.

When the mutuals themselves get into this hypothetical fairness game, they start to look foolish. Here's one example:

"This [charitable assignment] applies to anyone who opens a share account with Chelsea unless that person belongs to one of the classes of exempt customers (a list of these is readily available on request - the reason why some individuals are exempt is to avoid unfairness )."

Why couldn't they simply list them in a spirit of accountability, if it was so "fair". There was plenty of space on the relevant page - and how long is the list anyway, apart from new mortgage customers and Chelsea Pensioners ?

It may be encouraging, for some on this thread, that a few societies have at least considered some of the details of a hypothetical future situation.