Become a Nationwide member without "windfall" signaway

MarkyMarkD

wannabedebtfree wrote: »

And secondly most Building Societies that have converted in the past few years have put strict rules on the conversion benefits, such as number of years accounts held, balances being over a certain amount on several different dates over a period of years etc........... surely this will propbably be the case with Portman?

You mean Nationwide, not Portman.

The limit is always £100 on a date just before the merger/conversion is announced, and £100 on a later qualifying date.

There's nothing about number of years an account has been held.

MarkyMarkD

bristolleedsfan wrote: »

personally if i was you i would forget u saw the post, so far not one signaway has been enforced, signaways were introduced merely to avoid building societies being challenged by their members.

There hasn't been a conversion of an institution which had signaways. So to say that they will be by-passed is a dubious assumption.

Nationwide have stated (but they would, wouldn't they) that the signaway is 100% cast-iron.

MarkyMarkD

MiserlyMartin wrote: »

The FSA is being effective if it prevents cargetbagging. I would suggest that encouraging the de-mutalisation of the UK's largest building society (by a mile) is not in the best interests of long term moneysavers. Mortgages rates across the industry will rise without Nationwides competitive mutual status and general savings rates will fall. You'll make a quick buck today and pay for it - for the rest of your life, and so will future generations.

However theres no point to this. There are so many Nationwide members who have the signaway in force, that the few who apply for a Portman account won't be large enough to influence a cargetbagging vote. Also they will have to compete with the members even without signways who do recognise the importance of a Building Society.. so will vote no.

Maintaining a strong building society sector isn't part of the FSA's remit in the slightest.

Nationwide are NOT competitive - they are rarely best buy for anything. The supposed mutual advantage is largely spurious.

The idea that only carpetbaggers will vote for conversion of Nationwide is also totally wrong.

There are two reasons why signaway members would vote for conversion:

- a huge proportion of building society members simply do what the directors recommend, in every building society vote, irrespective of the benefits or otherwise for themselves; and
- of those who DO understand what's going on, a significant proportion will be swayed by the idea of over a £billion going to "charity".

Bear in mind that a large proportion of Nationwide signaway members are the sort of idealists who would see the latter point as a huge benefit, even if it costs them 5p a year in lost interest on their savings account.

Milarky

MarkyMarkD wrote: »

There hasn't been a conversion of an institution which had signaways. So to say that they will be by-passed is a dubious assumption.

Standard Life? I think some people around here opened stakeholder pensions with signaways and got 185 free shares?

MarkyMarkD

Hmm. I wasn't sure about SL. And yes, my wife had one of those although I thought (dubious memory) that she opened it without a signaway.

bristolleedsfan

MarkyMarkD wrote: »

The limit is always £100 on a date just before the merger/conversion is announced, and £100 on a later qualifying date.

There's nothing about number of years an account has been held.

in past eg Cheltenham and Gloucester takeover a 2 year rule has been applied.

cut off points for payouts have sometimes been ( not always been) at the end of the last financial year prior to the announcement)

MarkyMarkD

I still don't agree with your advice that it's better to stay a Nationwide signaway member.

On balance there's more probability of getting free shares by being a new Portman member, or even better an existing Portman member, than being an old Nationwide signaway member.

Let's consider the 3 options:

- existing Portman full member, existing Nationwide signaway member

If they bin the Nationwide, they become fully eligible on 28 August. If they close their existing Nationwide account on 27 August, they only have one day without N/W membership. No downside risk; lots of hypothetical upside benefit.


- existing Portman signaway member someway through their 5 years, existing Nationwide signaway member

If they bin the Nationwide, they become fully eligible at the 5 year point of their Portman membership. If they close their existing Nationwide account on 27 August, they have a period of up to 5 years with signed away N/W membership but as above only a one day gap in their signaway N/W membership. No downside risk; lots of hypothetical upside benefit.

- not a Portman member at all; existing Nationwide signaway member

If they bin the Nationwide, they become fully eligible N/W members in 5 years' time. If they close their existing Nationwide account on 27 August, they have a period of up to 5 years with signed away N/W membership but as above only a one day gap in their signaway N/W membership. No downside risk; lots of hypothetical upside benefit.

In all of the scenarios, there is only one day's gap in the N/W signaway membership. I don't accept that one day is likely to lead to any risk of losing N/W conversion benefits.

But if N/W do convert, and the signaway sticks, all of those individuals would lose out if they follow your advice.

bristolleedsfan

MarkyMarkD wrote: »

I still don't agree with your advice that it's better to stay a Nationwide signaway member.

On balance there's more probability of getting free shares by being a new Portman member, or even better an existing Portman member, than being an old Nationwide signaway member.

If they bin the Nationwide, they become fully eligible on 28 August. If they close their existing Nationwide account on 27 August, they only have one day without N/W membership. No downside risk; lots of hypothetical upside benefit.

- existing Portman signaway member someway through their 5 years, existing Nationwide signaway member

If they bin the Nationwide, they become fully eligible at the 5 year point of their Portman membership. If they close their existing Nationwide account on 27 August, they have a period of up to 5 years with signed away N/W membership but as above only a one day gap in their signaway N/W membership. No downside risk; lots of hypothetical upside benefit.

- not a Portman member at all; existing Nationwide signaway member

If they bin the Nationwide, they become fully eligible N/W members in 5 years' time. If they close their existing Nationwide account on 27 August, they have a period of up to 5 years with signed away N/W membership but as above only a one day gap in their signaway N/W membership. No downside risk; lots of hypothetical upside benefit.

In all of the scenarios, there is only one day's gap in the N/W signaway membership. I don't accept that one day is likely to lead to any risk of losing N/W conversion benefits.

But if N/W do convert, and the signaway sticks, all of those individuals would lose out if they follow your advice.

"if the signway sticks " :rolleyes: hence reason i said to poster to forget he had seen the post :rolleyes:

perhaps we could set up a poll on here and find out what percentage of moneysavers joined nationwide pre signaway and since signaway :cool:

Russ66

This was posted days ago

MarkyMarkD

Well amazing!

If it hadn't been posted in completely the wrong place, I might have seen it.

But then again, I probably wouldn't have - it depends on time of day more than anything else.

It's written very much in my style - maybe I logged on in my sleep and created a new identity just to post that, and then forgot about it! (Joke: I wouldn't do that. And I don't go round registering new identities just to post one thread, unlike the other person. Very odd).

myself.


Actually, the same story was online here:

http://www.cashquestions.com/forum/showthread.php?p=24927

even earlier.