Hi! I'm probably your typical working mum - not enough hours in the day to do everything, but I try ...
Hi! I'm probably your typical working mum - not enough hours in the day to do everything, but I try hard!
I've got a wide variety of interests, from reading to tai chi. And I'm opinionated, otherwise what am I doing here? ;-)
Member since:11.02.2001
Reviews:2
Members who trust:1
I have had a Coventry Building Society account of one sort or another for 30 years (now that ages me!). Yes, I too had one of those little blue plastic house-shaped moneyboxes . They broke easily when you 'accidentally' dropped them. (Who needs keys?)
I've currently got 3 accounts with the Coventry; two MoneyMaker accounts (minimum opening amount is £100) and an Investment Account (which is one of those old discontinued accounts with a naff rate of interest.) I have ATM cards for one of the MoneyMaker accounts and the Investment Account.
I like the Coventry; it's local, convenient, open on Saturday mornings and because it's part of the Link network, I can get money out of my Coventry accounts almost anywhere.
My parents had their mortgage with the Coventry and never had a bad word to say about it. Mind you, my mother is the most perfectly organised person I've ever met; no chance of her paying money in by cheque two days before it needs to be available as a cleared amount (when the cheque clearing time is 4 days plus...)
And that's my main problem with my accounts. My direct debits currently go out of my Investment Account. I've put off moving them because of the sheer unadulterated hassle I face contacting 20 companies to change the account details. I can cope with the fact that they rarely go out on the actual day I've specified; that's influenced by weekends, bank holidays and possibly whether there's an R in the month. What REALLY irritates me is those all-too-frequent occasions when I suddenly remember that I need to put more money in to cover a direct debit due to go out that day. So I make a special trip in to add the money IN CASH, I can see a computer-generated statement in my account book that the money is in the account and I STILL get a letter 2 days later telling me that they've charged me £15 for the privilege of bouncing my directdebit due to insufficient funds in my account.
Plus, I get hit by either £.50 or £1 charges for 'low funds' (i.e. less than £100 in my accounts) for at least 4 of my direct debits every month.
Still, if you're organised or you want a preferential rate of interest on your cash ISA (an extra 1% above basic ISA rates if you've been with the Coventry for a certain length of time), the Coventry is a good place to leave your money.
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Great opinion. I don't know if there's a Coventry BS near here (the only problem with good building societies is that they don't always have the huge national network of the big banks) but I'm going to find out!! Cheers.
Advantages: Competitive savings rates (guarantee to follow the base rate), easy to use internet site, future potential for de-mutualising Disadvantages: not easy to find the branches - but that's ok if you're happy surfing!
Advantages: Competitive savings rates (guarantee to follow the base rate), easy to use internet site, future potential for de-mutualising Disadvantages: not easy to find the branches - but that's ok if you're happy surfing!
Advantages: small, friendly yet efficient staff and service, competitive interest rates, easy to contact own branch directly!! Disadvantages: not many branches (though anyone in Uk can open accounts via post, phone or website you do NOT need to visit the branch)
Connoisseur_Haggler 28.02.2001 (03.07.2001)
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