Carpetbagging - is it worth it?

DemiDee

As someone who holds accounts with several building societies, which I've held since 1997, I would like to know if anyone here feels its worth keeping the £1000 or so I have in these accounts. After all, it could be earning interest elsewhere, and I've not heard of any building society windfalls for a very very long time now. I'm beginning to wonder if any prospective windfall would actually compensate for the compounded interest I'm losing.

Many thanks, Dee

bilbo_2

The day you close them they will convert

switch accounts at the same BS and keep minimum £100 in at the best rate available.

This year is going to be a tough financial year and I would not be surprised if a few mergers happen in the BS world:beer:

Kaz64_2

I would suggest the same. I Carpetbagged too, just after Halifax became a bank... opened accounts with 3 other BSs. Two of them merged, so I think I did well. The other one, I keep £400 in, just in case.

david69_2

I started about the same time 1997 if not before and i had the halifax,scotish widows ,friends provident ,bradford and bingley, birmingham midshires and recently standard life and portman so I've done ok from them I've still got accounts with britannia,yorkshire,n+p , nationwide and my mortgage with the furness b.s £100 in each no signaways

knights

Interesting you should raise this now as I have just reduced some accounts down to a minimum.

I went into Brittania and they said £ 100.00 is the minimum to retain voting rights. Yorkshire said rights would still exist if balance down to £ 1.00 and Nationwide said ok for a £ 1.00 with them, I noted the date and time of the call with Nationwide in case I need to refer back but not with Yorkshire.

Wonder if I should put the accounts back up to £ 100.00 ??

bristolleedsfan

knights wrote: »

Interesting you should raise this now as I have just reduced some accounts down to a minimum.

I went into Brittania and they said £ 100.00 is the minimum to retain voting rights. Yorkshire said rights would still exist if balance down to £ 1.00 and Nationwide said ok for a £ 1.00 with them, I noted the date and time of the call with Nationwide in case I need to refer back but not with Yorkshire.

Wonder if I should put the accounts back up to £ 100.00 ??

100.00 is needed to be a qualifiying voting member.

as others have said if u make sure u have your 100.00 in best paying society account. ( even if its monthly savers with 100.00 in and min monthly payment per month, taking advantage of 1 or 2 penalty free withdrawals a year you shouldnt be losing much in relative terms.

as saying goes u have to speculate to accumulate, "carpet bagging" was a derisory term handed out by the rich directors in the 90s, year 2000 term is a more respectable "speculating on financial provider consolidation investor"

new generation of building society staff now, if u were to ask then if a savings account is a share account they would look at u as if u was talking a foreign language. :eek:

( before any body asks all building society accounts are share accounts unless stated to be deposit accounts. and that includes nationwides flexi account despite it being a bank account. )

bilbo_2

knights wrote: »

Interesting you should raise this now as I have just reduced some accounts down to a minimum.

I went into Brittania and they said £ 100.00 is the minimum to retain voting rights. Yorkshire said rights would still exist if balance down to £ 1.00 and Nationwide said ok for a £ 1.00 with them, I noted the date and time of the call with Nationwide in case I need to refer back but not with Yorkshire.

Wonder if I should put the accounts back up to £ 100.00 ??

If they merge and you only have £1 in you won't get a windfall get £100 in at the best rate and forget about it if you can

Fella

bristolleedsfan wrote: »

100.00 is needed to be a qualifiying voting member.

( before any body asks all building society accounts are share accounts unless stated to be deposit accounts. and that includes nationwides flexi account despite it being a bank account. )

Yes, make sure you have £100 in. You normally need it in there before any announcement about conversion is made, most BSs don't give you the chance to top up. So the only safe way is to leave £100 in at all times.

If you want your £100 to be in "the best paying account" you must make sure they transfer the money from your old account to the new one. If they simply close one & open another you lose your unbroken membership (& potentially may not qualify if there is a windfall).

Regarding deposit accounts, I thought they were done away with about 10 years ago (i.e. ALL accounts are now share accounts)? I'm not 100% about that though.

Another small factor in favour of keeping Carpetbagging accounts: With the credit crunch etc it's not completely impossible that lending standards may be tightened up to something more akin to the old days, when it counted in your favour (as a borrower) if you'd had a savings account with a BS. So having a few savings accounts here & there is not the worst thing. Admittedly this is a very small consideration, but still worth considering.

cheers
Fella

knights

Thanks all - better get them back up to £ 100.00 straight away.

bristolleedsfan

Fella wrote: »

Regarding deposit accounts, I thought they were done away with about 10 years ago (i.e. ALL accounts are now share accounts)? I'm not 100% about that though.

cheers
Fella

at random skipton have an open issue deposit account, reference i was making about what BS staff would know about the term share accounts was in direct response to the poster who encountered two different Building Societies who gave incorrect info about amount needed in accounts for qualifying voting rights status.

i did say that virtually all building society accounts are share accounts to save people wondering if their accounts were share accounts and a deposit account would be stated as a deposit account.

http://www.skipton.co.uk/savings_and_investments/investment_rates/openAccounts.aspx

another benefit from holding a number of building society accounts for a period of years is some launch high paying accounts which are only available to members of a certain no of years standing.

ultimately its up to individuals to make their own investment decisions, my outlook is that one thing is certain and that is if u dont hold 100.00 in any particular building society account then u definately wont get any merger bonuses.

Jake'sGran

bilbo wrote: »

The day you close them they will convert

switch accounts at the same BS and keep minimum £100 in at the best rate available.

This year is going to be a tough financial year and I would not be surprised if a few mergers happen in the BS world:beer:

I was a carpetbagger and now have shares in Alliance & Leices, Northern Rock (:rolleyes: ) Bradford and Bingley but I cashed in my Portland account just before it was taken over. It was on the news today though that someone is interested in A & L but that there will be no benefit for share holders. Just remembered, I also have preference shares in Halifax, Bristol and West and another but I will always keep my Nationwide account even though every effort that has been made to put a new face on the board has failed.