Chelsea Building Society

I have a few bob with several building societies for two main reasons, firstly so that if any offer a new decent savings account I can quickly transfer money around and secondly I am ever hopeful of a windfall as I opened them in the carpetbagger heydays. New members have to sign the usual charitable assignment clause. From a savers point of view the Chelsea is no different from most other building societies. They presently offer their double guarantee account, a 4.45% 90day notice account till December 2003 after which the rate will drop to just above bank rate. There are a several things about them and their website that irritates me. The main one is ...

A few years ago now I opened a CLASSIC account with the Chelsea BS since, at the time, it had one of the best rates going. Everything was great for a while but of course, time passed slowly and, like most people, I lost track of the interest rates paid on this account as they went up and down. Imagine my surprise when I checked a few weeks ago and found that the latest (almost) equivalent account from the Chelsea (CALL DIRECT) pays almost three (yes 3!) times the interest rate of the original account I had opened all those years ago. Now, I realise that it is not in their best interest (no pun intended) to keep the customer informed when a new account ...