CarpetBagging- The best accounts to open at each Building Society

catwoman150

What a great thread thanks for all the info on here.

Milarky

(You've forgotten to put on all the freephone numbers BLF!)

In general it's always possible to send passbooks in the post for making up and obtaining withdrawals as required. They are surprisingly prompt

Also, you can give instructions by covering letter (e.g. when opening the Earl Shilton regular saver account or asking for a BACS withdrawal) to specify exactly what you want to happen. Sometimes they have additional forms they may want you to sign but there will be a postage paid envelope provided for your use (and the above Freepost addresses also work)

And Building societies are also going online increasingly - allowing you to check your balance and see interest received.

Melton Mowbray BS
Freepost
Leicester Road
Melton Mowbray
Leicestershire
LE13 0DB

I have this slightly differently - i.e.

Freepost Plus RRAU-XHAG-ZYTX
Melton Mowbray BS
Leicester Road
Melton Mowbray
Leicestershire
LE13 0DB

(The Freepost 'code' means something to the Royal Mail - keeps them 'happy' I suppose)

bristolleedsfan

[quote=Milarky;8649169but there will be a postage paid envelope provided for your use

.[/quote]


Building Societies are getting increasingly tight ( or forgetful) about supplying return postage paid envelopes.

gwapenut

newcastlebelle wrote: »

sorry if I'm being a bit thick here.........
thought that carpetbagging was where you opened an account in a bs with the hope they'll be taken over/merge in the future, thus gaining a right to shares/windfall.
have today received literature from Derbyshire, Ipswich and Skipton bs's and they all make you sign to say your possible windfalls will go to charity!
whats the point of have accounts in 59 dif bs's if you wont get the windfalls?

Don't they say that if they demutualise, windfalls will go to charity? Merging is not the same as demutualising, and so a merger will get you a windfall.

And anyway, as others have pointed out, if they want a yes vote, it has to be in enough people's interest, so even in demutualisation they may have to scrap the clause if they need the extra votes.

CannyJock

Excellent thread, well worth a bump. And a few £ 100 punts

Fella

gwapenut wrote: »

Don't they say that if they demutualise, windfalls will go to charity? Merging is not the same as demutualising, and so a merger will get you a windfall.

And anyway, as others have pointed out, if they want a yes vote, it has to be in enough people's interest, so even in demutualisation they may have to scrap the clause if they need the extra votes.

And don't forget, almost none of the remaining BSs are big enough to demutualise. Merging is far more likely. In fact Nationwide may be the only BS big enough to demutualise in the "traditional" sense.

And I totally agree that the signaway is a red herring. Carpetbagging is +EV, it always has been.

My personal choice is to Carpetbag passively (I never bother to vote, let alone take action), although it probably doesn't amount to a hill of beans.

emma396

Afahmaep wrote: »

Thank you for the above links bristolleedsfan, I have got another 4 cheques in the post this morning of £100 each to bring my total up to 36.

so afahmaep has an account with each building society?

bristolleedsfan

emma396 wrote: »

so afahmaep has an account with each building society?

He has around 36ish out of 59 going by his latest posts, most the remaining ones not worth bothering in our opinions, due to :

1. Opportunity Costs ( loss of interest possibly for endless number of years)

2. Probability of nil or very little payouts.

Also fair to say these same conversations were occurring 12 months ago with no subsequent merger announcements, we are now only 10 months away from their being once again another year of no merger announcments. _pale_

The_Biff

I think the Northern Rock experience will put an end any demutualisations. However, it may frighten some BSoc's into mergers.

mr-mad_2

I have an account at The Nottingham Building Society, that I have had for about about 25years, I was thinking of withdrawing the cash and closing the account.

Is it worth keeping open in case of windfall.

If so how much should I keep in it?