General Discussion and Whimsical Banter

alfred64

I've closed my Credit Union account. I had it for 24 years  .At one time there was several thousand pounds deposited there paying a low 'dividend' each year. It was not held for financial purposes but for  reasons of morality and community.
 I became disillusioned with the direction and purpose to which it seemed to have changed.
 24 years ago the interest charged to borrowers was 12.68% and the main office was staffed by two lady volunteers.
Following two location changes the interest charged is now  35%  and staff have become paid employees.
Cash transactions have become a thing of the past and opening hours greatly reduced. Online and phone are now the preference. It is geared more like a business model than a community service.
 Although I had become increasingly disenchanted, the introduction of an annual  £10  membership  fee was the clincher. So I withdrew my savings by bank transfer. There was even a 50p  charge for that. Unbelievable.

mebu60

One in 10 Britons have no savings, UK financial regulator says - BBC News

And a further 21% have less than £1k saved. 

Am willing to bet significantly more than the 31% above also have inadequate pension provision too. Particularly scary if they're renting or won't finish paying mortgage until post planned retirement. 

Tinkering around with the symptoms isn't going to achieve a great deal but presumably identifying and addressing root causes is too hard. And solutions would be expensive. 

gesdt50

mebu60 said:

One in 10 Britons have no savings, UK financial regulator says - BBC News

And a further 21% have less than £1k saved. 

Am willing to bet significantly more than the 31% above also have inadequate pension provision too. Particularly scary if they're renting or won't finish paying mortgage until post planned retirement. 

Tinkering around with the symptoms isn't going to achieve a great deal but presumably identifying and addressing root causes is too hard. And solutions would be expensive. 

Looking at my current pension provider which is currently offline, they have more jargon that I can't see unless one was involved in the creation of it one could understand it & actually most of the other pension providers that I was signed up to after 3 months are near as bad, I haven't been able to find a single tab or link to put a bit more pension money in as many radio,  newspaper financial advisers say to do
I don't get why these advisors say to ask your employer if they will contribute a few more percent if I do, having worked for numerous employers I can tell you they would splurge there cavier croissant on ones face if I asked for anything financial, near all of my past employers tried to screw me out of my earned holidays and many constructively maligned me out of jobs for daring to ask anything never mind asking them to actually do finger, keyboard based tabsheet adjustment that might be a few minutes of their time 

ircE

Anyone heard anything on the grape vine about anything spicy coming from Virgin Money? 

The 12% rate on current account balances up to £1,000 expires at the end of the month, and the 10% regular saver matures at the end of July. If they don't offer anything soon I suspect they will see a mass exodus of funds. But I suppose it depends on whether Virgin Money and new parent Nationwide think that's a problem.

ThePirates

They had a 6.5% one around for a few months earlier in the years but that's gone now...

OrangeBlueGreen

ircE said:

Anyone heard anything on the grape vine about anything spicy coming from Virgin Money? 

The 12% rate on current account balances up to £1,000 expires at the end of the month, and the 10% regular saver matures at the end of July. If they don't offer anything soon I suspect they will see a mass exodus of funds. But I suppose it depends on whether Virgin Money and new parent Nationwide think that's a problem.

My gut is telling me the 10% was probably more linked to getting the numbers up for the Nationwide takeover. Could be wrong though.

saverkev

ircE said:

Anyone heard anything on the grape vine about anything spicy coming from Virgin Money? 

The 12% rate on current account balances up to £1,000 expires at the end of the month, and the 10% regular saver matures at the end of July. If they don't offer anything soon I suspect they will see a mass exodus of funds. But I suppose it depends on whether Virgin Money and new parent Nationwide think that's a problem.

Virgin Current Account

12% ??  Surely 1% upto £1000?

Bridlington1

saverkev said:

ircE said:

Anyone heard anything on the grape vine about anything spicy coming from Virgin Money? 

The 12% rate on current account balances up to £1,000 expires at the end of the month, and the 10% regular saver matures at the end of July. If they don't offer anything soon I suspect they will see a mass exodus of funds. But I suppose it depends on whether Virgin Money and new parent Nationwide think that's a problem.

Virgin Current Account

12% ??  Surely 1% upto £1000?

Their switching offer last year allowed you to get a 10% bonus on top of the 2% rate that was then paid on their current account taking it to 12%.

When Virgin cut the rate on their current account from 2% to 1% they announced those with the 10% bonus rate would continue to earn the full 12% till the end of June.

See:
https://web.archive.org/web/20240501160759/https://uk.virginmoney.com/current-accounts/switching/#whos-running-this-offer

ranciduk

I’m a TSB customer (savings)

apparently Santander may be about to buy them out soon

i was wondering how this could possibly affect me as a customer 

is there any chance I may end up having to move all my money out? Or is that very unrealistic in this type of takeover?

I read this article:

“If TSB were sold, current accounts would probably be switched to the new owner. Those unhappy with a change could easily move banks using the Current Account Switch Service, which pledges to transfer customer deposits, direct debits and standing orders within seven days.“

I have money in a TSB fixed saver and once it’s matured if I want to move the money to another bank I would usually move it to my TSB current account, then move the money to my other bank

If they take the TSB current account away, I wouldn’t be able to do that 

clairec666

ranciduk said:

I’m a TSB customer (savings)

apparently Santander may be about to buy them out soon

i was wondering how this could possibly affect me as a customer 

is there any chance I may end up having to move all my money out? Or is that very unrealistic in this type of takeover?

I read this article:

“If TSB were sold, current accounts would probably be switched to the new owner. Those unhappy with a change could easily move banks using the Current Account Switch Service, which pledges to transfer customer deposits, direct debits and standing orders within seven days.“

I have money in a TSB fixed saver and once it’s matured if I want to move the money to another bank I would usually move it to my TSB current account, then move the money to my other bank

If they take the TSB current account away, I wouldn’t be able to do that 

Any changes to your account will take some time to come into effect. In the last year Virgin Money has been bought out by Nationwide, and Cooperative Bank has been bought out by Coventry Building Society. Yet my Cooperative and Virgin accounts still exist and my login details have not changed. Presumably at some point they will stop offering new Cooperative/Virgin products and eventually move existing accounts over to the new owners, but for now everything is continuing without any major effect on account holders.