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Chelsea sponsor the Pride of Gloucestershire Awards

The hugely successful Pride of Gloucestershire Community Awards are returning for a third year running and we are again the proud sponsors of the exciting Brave Heart Hero category.  This special award will be given to an individual of any age who has responded to an immediate need and significantly affected the life or lives of others.

Find out more about the Pride of Gloucestershire Awards.

What a wonderful year for Winston!

Staff voted for Winston’s Wish, the charity for bereaved children to focus their fundraising activity in 2008.  With the help of a dedicated fundraising committee who meet every month, the year was a phenomenal success with the most amount ever raised for our staff charity partnerships.

'Winston's Wish is very proud to have been Chelsea's chosen charity for 2008. The support and enthusiasm for our work from the Chelsea staff has been fantastic. So many events and campaigns have taken place throughout the year on our behalf to raise a fantastic £28,500! The staff have taken part in everything from White Water Rafting to Fun Runs dressed as the Chelsea Lion.

We cannot thank the staff enough for investing in the lives of bereaved children and making a very real difference to our work.'

Kate Acutt – Corporate Account Executive – Winston’s Wish. 

Staff charity for 2009

We are delighted to announce that our 5th staff charity of the year is Sue Ryder Care.  Staff voted for their choice of charity and Sue Ryder Care received the highest amount of votes.  We are very excited about the year ahead and hope to raise lots of funds for this great charity and have lots of fun along the way!

At Sue Ryder Care we are delighted to have been selected as Chelsea Building Society's new charity partner. This is a fantastic opportunity to build upon the current support we receive for our Leckhampton Court Hospice in Cheltenham into a wider national partnership. The funds you raise, the volunteering hours you give, and the awareness you help create, mean we can provide even more specialist care within the local communities we serve.

Paul Woodward
Chief Executive
Sue Ryder Care

Welcoming former Catholic members!

Everyone at Chelsea would like to offer a warm welcome to former Catholic members who became full Chelsea members on 31 December 2008.

When we announced our intention to merge in the summer of 2008, we quickly commenced work on making the process seamless for Catholic members. With any merger, it can be a difficult and confusing time. We were determined to make our new members feel at ease and confident that Chelsea would retain the heritage of Catholic Building Society. With shared values, a commitment to the local community and to mutuality, the boards of both societies were confident that the merger was in the best interests for Catholic members.

In October 2008, Catholic members voted on the proposed merger and they overwhelmingly approved it with a staggering 94.1% of eligible members voting ‘for’ the merger. It’s great to see members having their say and for us to receive such a fantastic response.

One of Chelsea’s strategies is to ‘impress our customers’ and this couldn’t be more applicable when welcoming new members to Chelsea. Following the announcement of the merger, months of hard work went in to ensuring that our new members had access to relevant and timely information about the merger.

This included the introduction of our Merger Helpline - a specialised group of Chelsea customer call centre agents who were fully trained in all aspects of the merger and about Catholic Building Society. We’ve got great people here at Chelsea and this was demonstrated by the commitment and dedication of these agents to providing Catholic members with the reassurance and support they needed during the process.

According to the terms of the merger, Catholic members received their bonus cheque in late January 2009. With bonuses ranging from £100 to £500, members were given the option to donate part or all of their cheque to one of the four charities Catholic Building Society partnered with: Emmaus, The Passage, Cardinal Hume Centre and The Railway Children. Both Chelsea and Catholic felt it was important to offer members the opportunity to give something back. These charities work tirelessly to combat homelessness which supports our mission to help people own a home and achieve financial security.

Over the next few months, work will continue in maintaining and building on the strong heritage of Catholic and bringing the two memberships even closer together. This includes further development of the relationship with Emmaus in the hope of being able to offer members something a little different that supports our Corporate Responsibility programme.

Keep an eye here for further updates.

A week in numbers

What interesting facts and figures came out of the world of financial services over the last seven days? Our at-a-glance guide provides a handy reminder of some statistics you may have missed:

80% of young adults believe they can be ‘financially independent' while still receiving financial support from their parents. A report by The Children's Mutual and the Social Issues Research Centre (SIRC) shows financial assistance towards university fees, mortgage deposits and paying for weddings all identified as key pulls on the parental purse. The report also uncovered a generation of youngsters receiving financial support by paying little or no rent (39%), receiving contributions to their bills (17%) and day-to-day living expenses (41%).

A third of landlords never carry out a tenant credit check. Research from Paragon Mortgages finds 22% of landlords only check new tenants occasionally, despite the fact that over a quarter of landlords (26%) have experienced a tenant leaving a property without paying the rent, while 14% have been forced to evict tenants for failing to pay the rent.

50% more mortgage customers have made overpayments in the last year. Figures released by Co-operative Bank Mortgages show that the vast majority (80%) of those people currently making overpayments are doing so because of the low return on savings rates. Over a third of people are paying off extra on their mortgages because their rate has fallen due to falls in base rate (37%). Almost one in ten people making overpayments are hoping to secure a better mortgage deal, by increasing the amount of equity in their homes (7%).

An estimated 298 million people in China use the internet, more in total than any other country worldwide, including the US. Gartmore states that according to the China Internet Network Information Centre (CNNIC) 270 million of China's internet users have access to broadband. Approximately 70% China's internet users are in the 10-29 year age bracket. Many of these users have no siblings as a result of China's ‘One Child' policy, and as a result spend a significant proportion of their social time online.

31% of Brits are worried they won't have enough money in the next five years to cover the costs of their domestic bills. Saga research reveals that despite the downturn, people are tending not to alter their portfolio of investments, in terms of the proportion held in cash, shares and property. 44% say they have not changed the way they save, with over half of over 50s (52%) sticking to their original investment plans to safeguard their savings in the current climate.

There were 40,000 repossessions in 2008. This equates to 1 in 290 mortgages. Data from the Council of Mortgage Lenders shows 10,400 of these repossessions were in the fourth quarter of 2008. A forecast of 75,000 repossessions for 2009 remains unchanged.

Seven in ten people have not moved or spread savings in the past six months. Egg has discovered 24 million Brits are still completely oblivious to the rate on their savings account despite the majority ranking ‘interest rates' as the top priority (31%) when it comes to choosing a savings provider in the current environment, closely followed by how sound or trustworthy a provider is (29%), and ease of access to savings (20%).

13% more people will forego their ISA allowance this year compared to last year. Research from the Co-operative shows that 73% - almost three in four - of those yet to invest in an ISA during the current tax year, do not plan to use any of their allowance before the deadline runs out on 5 April, up from 60% in 2008. Despite interest rates being at historic lows, 84% of those who do intend to invest into an ISA plan to use a cash scheme over stocks and shares.

Over 20 million adults are throwing away money on their mobile phone tariff every month by not using minutes and texts. Moneysupermarket.com research reveals the mobile industry is raking in £10billion every year from people only using two-thirds of their tariff. Over 5.5 million adults do not even know what tariff they are on.

39% of Brits do not have a pension. Research from Fairinvestment.co.uk shows the age group least likely to have a pension are the 18 and unders, where 48% do not have a pension. The age group most likely to have a pension plan in place is 46-50, where 29% admitted to not having a pension. 20% of Brits with a pension have had to reduce their contributions or stop paying into it since the credit crunch began.

Courtesy of headlinemoney.co.uk