CarpetBagging- The best accounts to open at each Building Society

gwapenut

This seems to be quite a good resource for the "where are they nows"

Scroll right down
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Building_society

planteria

yes, good link gwapenut. hadn't seen the wiki page. just 45 Building Societies remain.

EarthBoy

The Building Societies Association has a list of all mergers, conversions and name changes right back to 1937:

http://www.bsa.org.uk/consumer/factsheets/mergerschrono.htm

patientperson

planteria wrote: »

you mean Stockport, pp
and they don't enforce that if you bowl into a branch

Indeed I do planteria. Sorry for any confusion caused.

Never been in a Vernon branch.

melbury

EarthBoy wrote: »

Where have you been for the last three years? The Chelsea was taken over by the Yorkshire Building Society in 2010 and there was no payout. The Chelsea no longer exists in its own right; it's merely a trading name of the Yorkshire.

I wonder why there wasn't a payout, as they were taken over weren't they?

I have been holding on to that account for years thinking that one day it would pay off:(

Froggitt

Cos any "excess reserves" (like those distributed to the members by Halifax, Abbey, Woolwich etc) build up over a hundred years was spunked up the wall in the past ten years.

EarthBoy

The Chelsea had lost money on failed Icelandic bank investments and it had been hit by a large mortgage fraud, so there wasn't anything left to pay out, basically. The Yorkshire thought it was doing the Chelsea a favour by taking it over and didn't see why the Yorkshire members should subsidise a windfall for the Chelsea members.

For further details, see here: http://www.theguardian.com/money/2010/jan/14/yorkshire-chelsea-building-societies-merger

planteria

EarthBoy wrote: »

The Chelsea had lost money on failed Icelandic bank investments and it had been hit by a large mortgage fraud, so there wasn't anything left to pay out, basically. The Yorkshire thought it was doing the Chelsea a favour by taking it over and didn't see why the Yorkshire members should subsidise a windfall for the Chelsea members.

the Yorkshire knew it was growing it's society easily & there was money left for Chelsea members, but they didn't have to pay it out, so they didn't.

planteria

i've got over c.6k in Building Society accounts. of the 45 remaining, i am a voting member of 42. it seems a shame to lose membership of them after being a member for most of them for several years, and i still think there may be some major changes ahead...but i am thinking of cashing all in & streamlining my finances. i am generally in favour of stock market and property-based investments ahead of cash, especially at the moment.

i think there are probably more chances of windfalls from other mutuals too, and i have the following 9 'bags':

• Royal London Mini Stocks & Shares (Ins.) ISA
• NFU Mutual SHP
• Teachers Assurance 'Managed' SHP
• Wesleyan 'Pensions Managed Fund' SHP
• LV Mutual Investment Bond
• Druids Sheffield TESP
• Healthy Investment TESP
• Kingston Unity TESP
• Sheffield Mutual TESP

durali

Hi,
I'm wondering if I should keep my small amounts in several Building Societies in case of demutualisation.
Had them years and trying to do a' tidy up'
ie £100 in Darlington
£2000 in Chelsea
£2000 approx in B Midshires
Thank you