CarpetBagging- The best accounts to open at each Building Society

Froggitt

Ps dave - both ord and becles post on mse, and the artist posts on flyertalk. Pilot is on linkedin. Dunno what happened to the rest of the old crew. Assumed oggy got stung with Britannia pibs.

planteria

careful mate, you don't want to associate yourself with undesirables here;) and Oggy is still around. Becs is my facebook friend.

and i've still not debagged...sorry to see you both go. is patientperson patient enough to be patiently waiting for windfalls:question:

princeofpounds

I'm always amazed by how relaxed people are about the poor standards of corporate governance in these societies, as evidenced by the charitable 'poison pills' amongst other things.

The boards of these firms essentially tranquilise the membership base into inactivity, disincentivising any new members from challenging their positions or structure. Then they self-perpetuate, with members asked to rubber-stamp the same old collection of board candidates, proposed by - guess who - the boards.

Must be a great fat juicy sinecure to be a director at one of these places. The members don't matter as you are barely accountable to them.

planteria

tend to agree p of p....i am still a member of most building societies. i just wonder whether there could actually be changes ahead now, with questions about Nationwide..........

http://www.thesundaytimes.co.uk/sto/business/Finance/article1245108.ece

Nationwide Demutualisation:exclamati:question:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-23190259

talexuser

If they (just how unlikely in this economic climate!) convert to ease the leverage ratio because need money, I can't see how at the same time they will be giving away windfalls to the members...

ps I still have £100 in Nationwide - pre charity giveaway member - don't really know why, except not desperate for the £100..?

pharma

quick question: if I have an account with the Derbyshire b/s and nationwide (original) - does it mean I now have 2 memberships of nationwide post merger and therefore 2 votes and double pay-out if they convert, or did I effectively lose my Derbyshire membership status upon merger?
thanks

EarthBoy

pharma wrote: »

quick question: if I have an account with the Derbyshire b/s and nationwide (original) - does it mean I now have 2 memberships of nationwide post merger and therefore 2 votes and double pay-out if they convert, or did I effectively lose my Derbyshire membership status upon merger?
thanks

You only have one membership and one vote. In the event of Nationwide converting to a bank, which is possible, although very unlikely, it would be decided at that time who gets a payout and how much. Everybody might get the same, or combined account balances might be taken into account.

If you joined after 3 November 1997 then as the rules stand at the moment you won't get a penny because you are a "signaway" member. People have suggested that Nationwide might waive this rule, but that's just speculation.

Froggitt

If they want to convert, they will have to waive the rule, otherwise what is probably now a significant majority of signaway customers will vote against it.

pqrdef

Froggitt wrote: »

If they want to convert, they will have to waive the rule, otherwise what is probably now a significant majority of signaway customers will vote against it.

Well doing nothing isn't an option, so if the voters won't vote for something, the government will have to invoke some powers we didn't know it had and impose a solution.

Froggitt

I read yesterday that if the Co-op Bank PIB holders vote no, they Government may nationalise Co-op Bank. No different to what they did with Bradford and Bingley or Northern Rock.

When the Nationwide members narrowly voted against demutualisation in 2000 (?), they turned down roughly £1,500 per member. Its virtually worthless now IMHO.......they've spunked most of their reserves up a wall, and have been subsidising borrowers for years.

At least the other converted societies, failed or not, lined the pockets of their members on their way out the door.