Any carpet-baggers out there?

steady__eddie

Thanks for that, I saw that Rpoints link yesterday but when I attempted to access it, I was directed to another page where I was invited to join. I inserted my email address and was then informed that I couldn't join at the moment. This has been going on for about 6 months now and I haven't been able to access their site. I guess I'll never know !

ffacoffipawb

steady__eddie wrote:

If there's anyone out there who collects Bldg. Soc. a/cs and has not yet got Britannia in their collection, I see that they have dropped the opening a/c. balance to £100 on their DirectSaver and although the interest rate is not brilliant, it is not exactly peepoor. 4.75% + 0.3% for the first 6 months.
At last I can open one and transfer my TOISA (I know that the purists amongst you will say that there is no such thing now) to someone who is paying a more respectable interest rate and still preserve my membership status.

Why not transfer it into an ISA with Britannia, thus keeping tax free interest instead of taxable interest in the Direct Saver?

steady__eddie

Britannia's I.S.A. is only paying 4.8 so I figured a move somewhere else would net me just over a thirty quid/year but more importantly, it would add another book to the collection. The hundred quid for the DirectSaver will be coming out of Nationwide e (currently 4.8 I believe), so I''ll be gaining for the first 6 months ceteris paribus.

ReportInvestor

For s_e and anyone else who can't use the RPoints link.

This is the hack's e-mail address that he posted on RPoints, inviting replies:

andrew.ellson@thetimes.co.uk

ReportInvestor

The great windfall hunt is back on

according to Andrew Ellson in the Times

And James Spencer from Dundee is King of the Carpetbaggers.

Congratulations to James who has made £30,000 :eek: from carpetbagging since 1995 . I wonder who will have the last laugh - James or miseryguts Stuart Glendinning from MoneySupermarket who thinks carpetbagging is just a waste of time and money [& people should use his website instead ]?

Afahmaep

I thought I was doing well being a member of 22 of the 62 remaining Building Societies. This guy has got membership of 51!

ReportInvestor

22 is impressive. How impressive depends on how the cookie crumbles in future.

James Spencer is getting quite close to eliminating all chance from the equation. 51 passbooks :eek: is going some.

But can you imagine the form filling and the junk mail?

Many building societies are meticulous (and wasteful IMHO) in alerting their members of each interest rate change. I guess James' postman says a silent prayer each time the Bank of England MPC meets to deliberate .

cheggers

Interesting article in the times (above)

I was looking to get in at the Scotish just days before the opening balance went upto a grand.

Not sure about Tipton & Coseley rather go with Ipswich building society as my next target to add to my 20+ passbooks.

ReportInvestor

Do any of you rabid carpetbaggers have a copy of Saturday's Daily Mail

There is a suggestion on another website that Nationwide BS might have said that they expect there to be only 20 BSs left by 2016. And that they are not ruling out future takeovers by Nationwide BS.

Can anyone confirm and/or provide more detail?

If correct, that suggests four societies a year for the next ten years may have to merge with a larger partner :eek:.

An alternative explanation may be that it is just Nationwide desperate to create another finance story to deflect from its horrendous missing laptop accounts information blunder.

seven-day-weekend

alared wrote:

The last I remember was Portman taking over some other smaller society but they only gave the customers 5% of their account balance.
Anyone with the basic £100 got the grand total of a fiver.
Portman`s customers got nowt.
QUOTE]


I don't think this is true.

Portman took over Staffordshire. I had just over £100 in the Staffs (had the account for years) and I'm sure I got £80.

Portman are just about to be taken over by Nationwide and I now have an ISA with £4.5k in it, so I'm hoping to get some more!:T

I've actually done quite well with windfalls. (Been in the right palce at the right time without even trying). I've had them from Staffordshire, Birmingham Midshires, Bradford and Bingley and even the AA! Now I'm going to get another from Portman.:T :j