Any carpet-baggers out there?

cuffie

Not sure if this is the right place to put this...
We opened accounts quite a few years ago in case building societies converted... eg, Portman, Norwich & Peterborough, Saffron & Waldon etc. Now we are not sure if we should keep them or not. The interest we are getting each year is rubbish and we are thinking of closing them all and putting the money somewhere else. Is anyone in the same situation?

nearlyrich

I've still got just over £100 in each of Darlinton, Chelsea, Portman, Leeds & Holbeck and Yorkshire BS accounts. I don't think about them to be honest, until you put the thread up LOL. If they do go public the loss of interest is well worth it, my free HBOS Shares are worth over £4000 now.

cheggers

Carpetbagging - thats a name from the past.

My advise is if the Building Society is not in the top 10 of largest Building Societies the cash in/close the account. The top is the likes of Nationwide, Britanina, Yorkshire, Coventry, Cheslea, N&P, Cheshire, Leeds & Holbeck, West Bromich and Skipton.

The windfalls on societies outside the top ten will be peanuts, not worth the loss of interest on your savings to maintain the accounts.

I think it will be years before we see another windfall from any of the building socieites.

Lets see how the Standard life fairs up next year if they go plc.

surfcat

I thought most of the BS now had terms in the contract when you join saying that as a new member you will not be eligible for share handouts?

Paul_Herring

surfcat wrote:

I thought most of the BS now had terms in the contract when you join saying that as a new member you will not be eligible for share handouts?

Having signed up for YBS's ISA, there was a clause that if they converted within 5(?) years of joining, any windfall would be donated to charity. After that time you were eligable to collect it yourself.

CopperPlate_2

AFAIK all BS's now have the Foundation clause - I noticed recently that some of them had changed it from 5 years to forever i.e. you would never get anything if they converted (Coventry BS was one of them). You might get a small one that will only allow locals to sign up to accounts with the clause, but I think it would be extremely rare. The tales of people moving house to a rented property just to open a pitiful account with a tiny BS are long gone I think

DM's were good while they lasted but I think the BS movement is having a resurgence what with our attitudes towards corporate greed/company mismanagement/ethical policies and corporate 'fairness' - which is a good think given they are the alternative to the banks - not saying they are any better (sometimes they can be worse), but just an alternative!

CP

EdInvestor

surfcat wrote:

I thought most of the BS now had terms in the contract when you join saying that as a new member you will not be eligible for share handouts?

I think this only applies if they convert from a mutual to a plc.Lately what seems to be happening is bigger BSs are taking over or merging with smaller ones, so you do get a windfall. There are probably only two or three left that would be big enough to become a plc, I'd have thought.

thor

CopperPlate wrote:

DM's were good while they lasted but I think the BS movement is having a resurgence what with our attitudes towards corporate greed/company mismanagement/ethical policies and corporate 'fairness' - which is a good think given they are the alternative to the banks - not saying they are any better (sometimes they can be worse), but just an alternative!

CP

They are not an alternative. They are just as greedy as the banks. Their actions when the boe rate increases/decreases mirrors the very worst banks. I don't think the good ones are inherently better due to their mutuality either as if that was the case then all building societies would be topping the savings and mortgage best buy lists.

ManAtHome

thor wrote:

They are not an alternative. They are just as greedy as the banks.

Dead right - since they invented the 'no cash for new members' stuff, most of them have been arrogant beyond belief. PLCs have to answer to shareholders (not us lot, people like pension funds), Mutuals seem to answer to nobody apart from the often overpaid directors/mangers/ whatevers..

cheggers

Next time the annual election papers come through the post for the building societies your member of have a look at the salaries, bonus and pension benefits the elected board members are on. Some of them are £500K+ for doing naff all.

My advise is vote against re-election of all board members, and vote against anything that the board recommends.

nearlyrich

surfcat wrote:

I thought most of the BS now had terms in the contract when you join saying that as a new member you will not be eligible for share handouts?

All my accounts are without these terms, I have had the money sitting in them for over 5 years now anyway. Some of the accounts in their time were best buys, Darlington Pyramid was one I remember fondly, sadly once that offer ran it's course the interest rate went to a minimum so I moved my capital and just left £110 or so. As I said in my initial post in the thread I haven't thought about them for ages, a bit like my other windfall shares, it is real rainy day money to be used after all else has been exhausted.;)