Any carpet-baggers out there?

CopperPlate_2

Judi wrote:

Welcome to the boards MisterEd.

If they are paying such lousy interest i would be tempted just to leave £10 in and invest the £90 elsewhere. Rather in your pocked than theirs i recon.;)

I think the problem arises when the BS comes to either DM or merge/be taken over. There is usually a minimum balance required at some point in the past - which means you then can't quickly nip in and top it up before the deadline - which renders you ineligible for any windfall. How sickening would that be? Keep all that money tied up for 5 years earning 0.1% a year, withdraw it all down to £10 and then find out that you had to maintain a min balance of £100 for the prior 6 months! Oh, yes, I do know how that feels - THREE TIMES!!!!!!!!!! - Abbey, Alliance & Leicester AND Halifax!!!!!

CP

MisterEd

CopperPlate wrote:

I think the problem arises when the BS comes to either DM or merge/be taken over. There is usually a minimum balance required at some point in the past - which means you then can't quickly nip in and top it up before the deadline - which renders you ineligible for any windfall. How sickening would that be? Keep all that money tied up for 5 years earning 0.1% a year, withdraw it all down to £10 and then find out that you had to maintain a min balance of £100 for the prior 6 months! Oh, yes, I do know how that feels - THREE TIMES!!!!!!!!!! - Abbey, Alliance & Leicester AND Halifax!!!!!

CP

You took the words right out of my keyboard. This is just what I was thinking when I decided on £100 to be left in.

arnold_2

Definitely keep £100 in. You'll just kick yourself if/when one goes and you only had a tenner in it.

One other thing to watch it that more and more have their foundation clause not as 5 years but open-ended ie if you close an account with them, you will never be able to pick up a windfall from them in the future. Nationwide is the biggest to do this, but there are others.

The other thing to bear in mind is that it was years after Abbey National before the next one went ie you need a LOT of patience sometimes.

What is worth doing is to gradually change the accounts into ISAs over the years as they pay a good deal more. Only possible if you're not using your ISA allowance elsewhere of course.


Arnold

DemiDee

So, getting back to Cuffie's initial question - is it worth keeping old carpetbagging accounts open or not? I have £100 sitting in Chelsea, Portman, Hinckley and Rugby, Melton Mowbray, Brittania, Mkt Harborough, Leeds and Holbeck, Nationwide x 2, and the Loughborough. I've had all of these since 1997 and still waiting for windfalls!! Knowing my luck I would draw it all out and then they'd all convert within the next two years :-(

2ax

When they have voted on the issue, it has been against. I think that after the flurry of the largest ones converting, there was something of a backlash, based partly on the feeling that newly converted ones were less competitive, as the margin between mortgage and savings rates also had to fund dividends. A few hundred pounds wouldn't be much compensation for a mortgage rate 0.2% higher for years.

I think the chances of small local ones floating on the stock market is very small indeed, but there will probably be some consolidation with more mergers, which may not give members a windfall anyway. Larger ones, who knows? If Nationwide has stood against it for this amount of time, then it doesn't seem an imminent prospect.

DemiDee

Aww. I guess I was just hoping someone would say keep em all open, cos I just know that once I close them, something will happen! This is especially probable with the Chelsea, since just after I opened my account with £100, the minimum opening balance went up to £5000!!!

flossy_splodge

Well your wish is my command! I genuinely DO think you should keep those accounts open Demidee as I believe we will see some more changes in the next 18/24 months or so and as others have said, wouldn't you kick yourself. Any large amounts of dosh should obviously be in best rate account but I would certainly keep your £100's where they are! Keep fingers crossed!

DemiDee

Thanks Flossy...I'll sleep well tonight now!

cheggers

All societies in the top 15 largest building societies have potential for a decent windfall one day so do some of the friendly societies (ie Liverpool Victoria)

I think in a few years we will see another batch on demutalisation. You have to be in it to win it, so if you have £100 in any and are a member fingers crossed.

steady__eddie

Don't forget that the majority of Societies insist that windfalls are only paid to members of at least 5 years standing (Principality & Dudley 7 years) so if you have not been in it to win it for at least 3 years, you may have missed the boat.