b & b

[BertiWooster]

Any sympathy out there for the ordinary Joe, with his / her 250 shares in Bradford & Bingley ?

[Maypole]

No. Not a smidgeon. It should be a calculated risk to put your money into shares, risk being the operative word.

[redcrx]

depends, did you buy them last week hoping to make a quick profit???

I will sympathise with anyone who loses money through no fault or greed of their own, but sadly i think its going to happen to more than just B&B shareholders over the next few months.

[BertiWooster]

O K - let's push this a bit further

What if , all those ordinary Joe's did not buy the shares , but qualified for them when Kind Mrs Thatcher brought in legislation so that building societies could demutualise , and convert to banks

[redcrx]

well i wont be gloating but Im hardly going to feel sorry for them am i. They didnt lose anything really did they?

[jake-the-peg]

Not really - they were free money.

I like millions of others got a couple of hundred HBOS shares simply for having a mortgage when they demutualised.

I've lost 90% of the value now

Easy come, easy go.

More sympathy with the staff losing their jobs to fret over people losing a grand or so they did no work for!

[BertiWooster]

Ok - so for example , if you lost some of your possessions or money that was given to you , that would be ok , because you didn't buy those possesions or earnt / worked for that money .

[jake-the-peg]

Well it would be a lot easier to bear.

Especially if my neighbours house had burnt down and they'd lost everything!

Shares are a risk based investment - as they say the value can go up instead of down - if they didn't they'd be called savings accounts!

[BertiWooster]

I agree that buying shares is a risk you take , but some people are not very savvy when it comes to these things , and might have viewed these shares , given to them as in effect a savings ; and not realise the risk of not selling up and transferring the cash into a savings account .

I agree , that to some people 250 shares in BB is nothing to lose sleep over - then again , it maybe to others .

By the way I agree , concerning the plight of the ordinary employees - and people with mortages who are going to see their repayments rocket .

[redcrx]

possessions or money?

it was hardly that was it, it was perhaps similar to a lottery ticket that may or may not have won. If they needed the money then why not cash thre shares in when they first got them and spend it or save it?

[rov1200]

I'm just glad that the members of Nationwide kept it a building society. The others have certainly paid for the sellout of the company.

[sandmaster]

The shares issued at demutualisation did come at a cost - the depositers would have received higher rates of interest, or the borrowers charged lower rates - if the building societies had remained as they were. Thatcher thought she was destroying the (monopoly, as she saw it) of the big banks, but all she achieved was the mess we are in now and the big banks will have bigger monopolies. So I have some sympathy to the small shareholder who received his/her shares on demutualisation and has remained 'loyal' by not selling sooner.

[Maggoty]

I can see both point of views. However I was involved in the railtrack debacle and a lot of the shares were "given" to employees as part of their pension package. Some weren't offered the choice of shares or money and some that took the share option did it so that the money would be there when they retired or funeral expenses. They were those that owned 200-500 shares which were worth �12 but then became worth only �1.25. Then there were those who bought the shares in the grey market in the hope that the shares would rocket with a rescue bid. They lost loads of money but have no sympathy for them. And I hsould imagine most don't want the sympathy - it was a gamble they took that didn't work.

[jake-the-peg]

I think the key term there is "as part of their pension".

So it's not really comparable to building society windfall shares

[anotheoldgit]

Well it seems like we have many "I wouldn't P**s on you if you were on fire" types on this site.

Such caring people I don't think, and these are mainly left wing types, it only goes to prove my point, "why are the left so nasty"

I haven't any of these now worthless shares, but I still feel very sorry for the ordinary Joe, whether it is a few shares, many hundreds, or just a �5 out of their wallet.

[Maggoty]

I must admit I have bought shares in Barclays (yes, bought) as a suppliment to my pension when that time comes. I haven't bought loads, maybe about �300 worth, but I am trying to plan for my old age so that I have a confirtable life. Something we are constantly being advised to do.

Even if the shares were windfalls in the first instance, they have been calculated in a lot of peoples plans. And yes, those people I feel sorry for. As I said before, the genuine "players" accept the risks and accept the losses - but, like me, a lot of "ordinary people" albeit niavely, believe that investing in institutions like Barclays, Northern Rock etc is as safe a bet as possible.

So although it is no-ones fault - its still one helluva shame

[jake-the-peg]

I think AOG what we have here is a number of people who's attitude is

"I don't care if you're having a coronry, Call an amulance for my twisted ankle!"

Mostly Tories I'm guessing

[BertiWooster]

For the avoidance of doubt - am I included in these

'' a number of people '' ?

[BillySugger]

Sorry but you & everyone else should have known the risks when you bought them . If you didn't want to take the risk you should have put your money somewhere safer .

[BertiWooster]

BillySugger

How about reading the various posts again - paying attention this time ?

[jno]

like jake, I have some Halifax shares that are not now worth a whole lot, oldgit, so I invite you to show your tender caring side by buying several copies of The Big Issue from me...