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!
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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!