Is Carpetbagging Dead

couriervanman

Whilst closing accounts and seeing the dire rates paid on quite a few I was impressed with the Ecology......All accounts no longer available pay 1% with the following info "Minimum interest rate guarantee"

happybagger

Yes I have an old ISA with them with this guarantee.
Unfortunately the don't accept transfers into it.

planteria

i have an account with them with that guarantee.. it's better than most building society accounts, and it's the kind of thing that they should all be doing imo. but i only have a small amount in there: local Co-ops 2%+ / XBT 6% / GUSD 8.6%

couriervanman

The real pain in the ar5e with closing a load accounts was the insistence of a few Tipton, Principality, Newbury & Nottingham on providing photocopies of passport/bills because the accounts were not active for 14 years. But I had at another dozen that had been open the same or longer with no activity which were closed with no problems which is how it should be as still at same address/same bank account/signature, but i suppose it keeps the jobsworths happy  

happybagger

Could perhaps have sent a bank transfer for, say, a tenner before closing them, thus reversing the inactive status in advance?

couriervanman

happybagger said:

Could perhaps have sent a bank transfer for, say, a tenner before closing them, thus reversing the inactive status in advance?

I tried that with Principality and Newbury and was told it would be refused/returned

planteria

why would a payment to a member's account be refused/returned?

couriervanman

planteria said:

why would a payment to a member's account be refused/returned?

Well the Principality account hadn't been touched for 14 years since opening and when I sent letter and passbook in to close the account was told I need to send copy of passport and utility bill. When I phoned up and pointed out the address was still the same I got same answer "account inactive" so I said I would transfer or send a payment to account......was told it would be returned as the account was inactive.

Like I said "jobsworths" as I closed a lot of accounts that hadn't been touched for 10 years plus and more importantly still live at same address/same bank 

happybagger

I'm no expert on bank transfer protocol and stand to be corrected by anyone who has done it recently, but I would have thought that a bank transfer would have gone through and allocated to the account, thus rendering it 'active' again.
Maybe you should have tried it rather than asking them. Not all society emoployees know the full story. You would have found out quickly enough as it would have been returned to its origin if rejected.

In the past I had an account with a small building society inactive for 12 years, I sent a deposit by bank transfer and it was accepted.
Another BS wrote to me saying I had an account unused for 7 years, and if I didn't want it to be called "inactive" to simply send the passbook in for updating. Whilst others say this doesn't make an account 'active'.

couriervanman

As I said previously i closed quite a few with no activity for 10 years plus with no problems I could understand if moved house/changed name etc.....its no biggie as I used all freepost addresses from a different thread