Building Society Demutualisation Carpet Bagging

WSB

Opened lots of building society accounts in the late 90s, in case they demutualised and gave windfall shares or payments to their members. 

Many years have now passed and I still have accounts with Nationwide, Hinckley and Rugby, Newbury and Yorkshire, each with a couple of hundred pound in. 

Before I close all these accounts and make use of the funds investing elsewhere, does anyone see any benefit in still keeping these accounts open? 

Thanks 

flaneurs_lobster

Nationwide MAY be making a "Fairer Share Payment" in around 6 months time if you have had a savings account with them for some time prior, but would mean you would also need to open a current account with them about now and put some cash through it each month.

Nationwide, YBS (and maybe the others you have) have Regular Savings accounts paying more than RPI at the moment, but I guess if you were interested in these you would have them open already.

aroominyork

The chance of Nationwide demutualising is somewhere between nought and zero.

flaneurs_lobster

aroominyork said:

The chance of Nationwide demutualising is somewhere between nought and zero.

Probably a bit less than that.

I doubt if our OP has any current hopes of trousering demutualisation bungs.

boingy

aroominyork said:

The chance of Nationwide demutualising is somewhere between nought and zero.

Never say never. All it takes is a change of management, a finance hiccup (maybe they keep acquiring other banks but get it badly wrong one time) and/or a change of banking rules that disadvantages a mutual. No sign of any of those today but none of us know the future.

So I'd say the chances are somewhere between zero and almost zero.

But to the OP's question I'd say that there's no real point in keeping those accounts open except maybe the Nationwide one for the possible Fairer Share bonus if you are prepared to jump through the hoops.

Hoenir

Days of Building Societies becoming banks is long gone. 

EssexHebridean

The only advantage I can see is where those accounts would give you "existing customer rights" - for example to a really good regular saver or something like that. Having said that, you wouldn't need hundreds of pounds in there for that - just a pound would do the trick. 

WSB

EssexHebridean said:

The only advantage I can see is where those accounts would give you "existing customer rights" - for example to a really good regular saver or something like that. Having said that, you wouldn't need hundreds of pounds in there for that - just a pound would do the trick. 

Some require more than a pound to get the membership rights. Hence the amounts in each that I have. 

EarthBoy

WSB said:

EssexHebridean said:

The only advantage I can see is where those accounts would give you "existing customer rights" - for example to a really good regular saver or something like that. Having said that, you wouldn't need hundreds of pounds in there for that - just a pound would do the trick. 

Some require more than a pound to get the membership rights. Hence the amounts in each that I have. 

You're technically a member with a pound, but you don't normally get voting rights, unless you've at least £100.  The conditions for opening new accounts will vary from one building society to another.

happybagger

There was a point where there were 67 building societies left in the UK. At that point I was a member of 66 of them...
I agree now there is no chance of demutualisation and mergers (takeovers) are pushed through without a member vote - the recent one being Newcastle BS taking over Manchester BS.

I have closed a number of society accounts but maintain some with low balances, where the society has been known to offer 'loyalty' accounts or occasional table-topping accounts. Some also to save ID requirements in the future.

Bath, Bucks and Earl Shilton are on my 'possibly for the chop' list in the new year.

WSB

happybagger said:

There was a point where there were 67 building societies left in the UK. At that point I was a member of 66 of them...
I agree now there is no chance of demutualisation and mergers (takeovers) are pushed through without a member vote - the recent one being Newcastle BS taking over Manchester BS.

I have closed a number of society accounts but maintain some with low balances, where the society has been known to offer 'loyalty' accounts or occasional table-topping accounts. Some also to save ID requirements in the future.

Bath, Bucks and Earl Shilton are on my 'possibly for the chop' list in the new year.

Thanks. Very impressive