Coventry Building Society

Advantages: Local, convenient, some accounts pay really good rates of interest
Disadvantages: Direct debits can bounce even when the money is in the account, low funds charges

...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...

aetrevitt 11.02.2001 · Read review
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Review of Coventry Building Society Accounts

Tender Loving care from Coventry BS - TLC

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)

...Yes, that’s right TLC not PLC is Coventry Building society’s motto, and they’re right! Even though I’ve only had the pleasure of being with Coventry BS for a year now I am happy to admit they really are one of the more friendlier building societies left! Throughout this opinion I will refer to Coventry TLC as they do treat their customers with the up most respect and tender loving care (TLC!) This is an opinion submitted under "customer/general service-Building societies" based on my experience as a member there for 1 year. I will not discuss the range of financial products in great detail here as these would be best found under "accounts" sub-category) With the financial year coming to a close (well, it’s hard not to miss all reminders from banks/building societies) I decided it was time to...

Connoisseur_Haggler 28.02.2001 (03.07.2001) · Read review
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Review of Coventry Building Society

Nationwide Building Society

Advantages: Good selection of financial products
Disadvantages: If your requesting a transfer don't expect it to be easy

...As a loyal Portman Building Society Customer I was a little sceptical as to what to expect when they were bought out by Nationwide Building Society. Nationwide claim they are "Proud to be different", and they certainly are. Although they supply a large number of high interest savings accounts, fixed rate ISA's at a whopping 6.15 percent and great value deals on mortgages I noticed a couple of downfalls as well. With specialised savings accounts customers are normally issued a passbook to track their investment records. Nationwide's Passbook is dark blue in complexion with the Nationwide logo emblazoned on the front in gold. The pages inside in my opinion are not of very good quality especially compared to the offerings of the Yorkshire Building Society and Britannia. In a passbook I like to be able to clearly see my transactions...

K1r5ty21 28.08.2008 · Read review
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Review of Nationwide Building Society

A Local Building Society For Local People!

Advantages: Competitive Rates
Disadvantages: Only A Few Branches

...When I decided to open a savings account I had a good look around at the various options available and eventually settled for an account at the Barnsley Building Society. There were various factors why I chose to open an account with a rather small, and relatively unknown Building Society, which I will detail during the course of this review. First however I will begin with a little bit of background information first. THE HISTORY The Barnsley Building Society has a long history. In fact it was established way back in 1853 as the Barnsley Permanent Benefit Building Society. The initial aim of the company was to enable local people to buy their own residences or other freehold or leasehold property. The Barnsley Permanent Benefit Building Society became incorporated under the Building Society Act of 1874, but at this time...

micksheff 10.09.2006 · Read review
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Review of Barnsley Building Society

NATIONWIDE BUILDING SOCIETY

Advantages: Very friendly staff, always prepared to help
Disadvantages: Mistakes happen freqently.

...Sorry but I could not think of a witty title, so I left it very simple! I started banking with the Nationwide Building Society around 7 years ago, me and my now husband decided to open a joint account as we had been together a year by then and were ready to settle down. He already had a savings account with them so we decided it would be easier and then we could keep the savings account open as well. We had to make an appointment as we had to take in documents to prove our identity and a utility bill. Off we went on the day of the appointment fully armed with documents and ready to open our first joint account together, oh if only life could be simple! Now there are several different accounts you can open with the Nationwide Building Society. Flex Account being the main on although there are basic flex accounts of this if...

iloveshoping 29.06.2005 · Read review
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Review of Nationwide Building Society Accounts

Updated Remaining a building society

Advantages: Good personal service and good rates
Disadvantages: No branch in my hometown of Walsall

...About four years ago I received the annual statement from Sun Life Assurance regarding my mortgage endowment and, being an accountant, I did a few calculations to see roughly what the final figure would be at the end of the term. I was horrified by what appeared to be quite a shortfall in endowment to mortgage outstanding! Since the returns from the policy were not going to be enough to pay off the mortgage at the end of the term I had a choice to either take out a further policy or change my mortgage. I decided to change my mortgage from an endowment mortgage to a repayment mortgage. I shopped around and found that the best deal would be with the Britannia Building Society, as they would give me a discounted interest rate whilst I remained a member of my trade union, Unison. I have also continued paying my policy with Sun Life...

SusanLesley 30.11.2000 (11.11.2001) · Read review
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Review of Britannia Building Society Mortgages

Ecology Building Society. Save and stay green

Advantages: Save and help the environment
Disadvantages: Not as many packages available

...What do you do? You want to save some money but how can you wade through all of the conflicting claims of the various Building Societies? They tell you how much you can earn with your money, but very rarely do they tell you the cost of your savings. Cost? What do I mean by cost? The ecological cost of investing your money with one organisation or company than with another. It's all very well saving money for a rainy day, but what if your money is being used to finance a project that you personally might find offensive or you could not agree with? With the Ecology Building Society, you do not have to worry yourself about that because would be safe in the knowledge that your money is being used wisely and greenly. So exactly what IS the Ecology Building Society? In it's own words: " The Ecology is a mutual building society...

Martinscholes 22.09.2005 · Read review
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Review of Ecology Building Society

Building Societies And The Bosman Ruling

Advantages: They have all vanished
Disadvantages: Interest credited to mortgage account annually

...When I last moved house 5 years ago I took out a mortgage with the Bradford and Bingley Building Society (BBBS). When I took out the mortgage it was a mutual organisation and generally I have always been in favour of mutuality over the listed banks. It meant at that time that the BBBS was quite competitive compared with those banks which had demutualised like the Woolwich or Halifax. They even had a loyalty bonus which meant after having a mortgage for a certain time you got a discount off their normal rates. That has all changed now and the BBBS has become less and less competitive. When I agreed my mortgage it had a discount for the first 2 years and there were redemption penalties if we left them in the first 5 years. Increasingly I felt unhappy with this. When I took it out I expected the BBS to remain competitive but they soon...

polydeuces 21.07.2001 · Read review
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Review of Bradford & Bingley Building Society Mortgages

Our Experiences with Nationwide Building Society

Advantages: Wide range of accounts
Disadvantages: Not being able to transfer some money from one account to another on a certain day of the month

...My fiance and I have just become customers of Nationwide builing society and have already found them to be very unprofessional. My fiance wanted to transfer all money for bills in to another account on the 28th of every month, we were told when we went in it inquire about their current account that this was not a problem and that the fund could be transferred that day and for direct debits to go out the following day. This impressed us so we decided to open two accounts, a "main account" (which our salaries would be paid into) and a "bills account" which all direct debits would be taken from. The adviser took the details for our direct debits and said that he would get them set up the following day. We also registered for internet banking so we could monitor our 2 accounts from home. About a week later when the access number...

Toady 23.08.2001 (24.08.2001) · Read review
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Review of Nationwide Building Society Accounts

A Fairer Society

Advantages: Mutual society means cashback, excelletn customer care
Disadvantages: Savings and mortgage rates are a bit average

...Britannia is a mutual building society, with branches in most towns. I have both a mortgage and a savings account with them and have been in several branches near where I live recently, for one reason and another, so I thought I'd tell you all about it! THE MUTUAL BUILDING SOCIETY What this means is that Britannia are not a PLC, and beholden to their shareholders, they are a society owned by the members. so when they make a profit, they distribute a portion of that as fairly as possible to all the members. The way they have devised is a loyalty scheme, whereby once you've been a member for two years (with either a mortgage, a savings account, a credit card etc) you get your share of the profits via a points scheme. The more points you have, the more profit you get, up to a maximum of £500 a year. You accumulate points by having...

sadoldbag 29.02.2008 · Read review
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Review of Britannia Building Society