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Unexpected Building Society Windfalls
When I first came to live in Britain about 10 years ago, there was a wave of building societies being turned into banks -- and cash windfalls for the building society shareholders. Building societies are the UK name for what those in the US call credit unions. That wave came and passed, but a mini-wave has just hit again, giving me a windfall for the first time.
To get a windfall, you usually had to have money on deposit with a building society for over a year and some minimum amount. My wife would have gotten a nice windfall from the Woolwich all those years ago, but we were so broke at the time of coming over that her account dipped below the 100 pound mark required for a payoff. The payoffs were so good for some that soon "carpetbaggers" appeared, people who joined building societies only in hopes of them going private. Some joined, then lobbied other members through elections to go private. Many building society reacted by adding rules requiring new members to give up any benefits if they became a bank. A few years ago, I remember Portman being highlighted in a newspaper article as one of the last building societies not to have such rules at the very end of the wave. I figured what the heck, shoved some money in my carpetbag and opened up a savings account. Now Portman's merging with Nationwide, so I'll finally see a windfall of some amount. Nice -- plus I don't have to feel guilty since rather than becoming a bank, it's happening because Portman's joining another building society. Meanwhile, I just received my check for another merger, Portman taking over Lambeth. This was entirely unexpected. I put some money in a Lambeth bond -- a CD for US readers -- about two years ago. The takeover meant I was due a windfall. I think the 400 pounds paid was twice the amount of interest I actually earned on the bond! By Danny Sullivan on Nov. 10, 2006 | PermalinkSee related posts in: Banking
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Technically that's not entirely accurate: UK has credit unions too, and there is a difference. And as a note of interest, the team i work with used to SEO Lambeth before they got bought by Portman, and we're now possibly going to be doing Portman's site too!