Standard investment account terms and conditions

1. Incorporation
The investment contract between us incorporates these standard terms and the terms and conditions that apply to the particular account you have chosen (the 'product terms'). In the event of any conflict between the standard terms and the product terms, the product terms will apply.

2. Changing the interest rate
Subject to any special conditions relating to interest rate changes which cover a particular account we can change the rate of interest paid on your investment as follows:

We may at any time change the rate of interest to be paid on your investment if we reasonably believe the change is needed for any one or more of the following reasons (which may relate to circumstances existing at the time or which we reasonably expect to apply in the near future):
1. to reflect, in a proportionate manner, changes in the Bank of England Repo Rate (Bank Rate) or changes generally in interest rates offered by our competitors in the consumer savings market
2. to enable us to maintain the competitiveness of interest rates charged to borrowers from us, while having regard to the interests of our consumer savers, in the interests of our business as a whole
3. to reflect, in a proportionate manner, any increase or reduction in costs reasonably incurred by us in operating our consumer savings products
4. if it is necessary to maintain our financial strength in the interests of all our consumer customers
5. to enable us to harmonise, in a reasonable manner, the interest rates being paid to our consumer savers following any acquisition of savings or investment accounts or any take over of, or merger with, another savings provider
6. to reflect, in a proportionate manner, changes in the law or interpretation of the law, decisions or recommendations of an Ombudsman, regulator or similar person, or any code of practice with which we intend to comply.
We can also change the rate of interest for any valid reason (other than a valid reason mentioned in 2.1) where we reasonably believe the change is appropriate. If we do so:
1. we will give you individual notice of the change before, or as soon as reasonably practicable after, such change is to take effect, and
2. you can within 30 days of our notifying you of the change, without having to give us any notice, switch your account or close it without having to pay any extra charges or lose any interest due up to the date of switching/closure, and
3. we will tell you this and that we are changing the rate of interest in accordance with this Condition 2.2 when we give you notice.
Subject to the specific requirements of 2.2 we will tell you about interest rate changes at the earliest opportunity (and where practicable on or before the date the change is to take effect) as follows:
1. by letter or other personal notice, or
2. by general notice in our branches and Head Office and on our website, together with advertisements in two or more national newspapers of our choice, within 3 working days of the change. You can find out which are the relevant newspapers by contacting any branch.

3. Withdrawals/repayment of your investment

If the terms of the particular investment account permit cash withdrawals we may, for security reasons, impose limits on the amount of cash which may be withdrawn. Presently the limit for daily withdrawals is £500 but such limits may be varied by notice from time to time.
We can repay to you all or part of your investment at any time, without giving any reason, after giving you at least one month’s notice, except where the investment has been accepted for a fixed term which has not expired. You can close your account at any time, without giving any reason, after giving any notice required by the conditions applying to the account, except where the investment has been accepted for a fixed term which has not expired or the product terms otherwise restrict.
We can close your account immediately if we have reason to believe that you have been involved in fraud or criminal activity or you behave in a way which is threatening or abusive to our staff. If we exercise our right to close your account under these provisions, we do not have to give you notice nor a reason.

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4. Instructions
We will require your written instructions (unless the terms and conditions of the investment product selected make other provisions) should you wish to do any of the following:

withdraw or transfer funds from your account
vary or cancel payment or transfer instructions
advise us of a change of address.

5. Changes to account terms (other than to interest rates or charges)

In this Condition 5 we describe how we may change these standard terms, and any special conditions applying to particular accounts, other than the rate of interest and charges which are dealt with respectively in Conditions 2 and 17.
If the change is to your advantage we can make it immediately and tell you about it within 30 days. In all other circumstances the following provisions of this Condition 5 apply.
We can make a change at any time. Changes may include the removal of, or amendment to, conditions or the inclusion of new conditions, and may be made if we reasonably believe that the change is needed for any of the following reasons, (which may relate to circumstances existing at the time or those which we reasonably expect to apply in the near future):
1. to reflect, in a proportionate manner, changes which we reasonably make to our products or services or the way we provide them
2. to reflect, in a proportionate manner, changes in technology or general practice in the consumer savings industry
3. to reflect, in a proportionate manner, changes in the law or the interpretation of the law, decisions or recommendations of an Ombudsman, regulator or similar person, or any code of practice with which we intend to comply
4. to enable us to harmonise in a reasonable manner the products or services concerned following any acquisition of investment or savings accounts or any take over of, or merger with, another provider of savings or investment accounts
5. to correct errors
6. to enable us to maintain our competitiveness, while having regard to the interests for our consumer savers, in the interests of our business as a whole.
We can also make a change for any valid reason (other than a valid reason mentioned in 5.3 above where we reasonably believe a change is appropriate). If we do so:
1. we will give you individual notice of the change before, or as soon as reasonably practicable after, such change is to take effect
2. you can within 30 days of our notifying you of the change, without giving us any notice, switch your account or close it without having to pay any extra charges or losing the interest due up to the date of switching/closure
3. we will tell you this and that we are making the change in accordance with this Condition 5.4 when we give you notice.
If the change is neither to your advantage nor disadvantage we will give you at least 30 days’ notice before making the change.
If the change is to your disadvantage we will give you at least 30 days’ notice by letter or other personal notice before making the change. At any time up to 60 days from the date of the notice you may, without having to give us any notice, switch your account or close it without having to pay any extra charges or lose any interest due up to the date of switching/closure.
If we accidentally fail to give you notice under this Condition 5 this will not make the change to the account term invalid.
If the Banking Code at any time requires any greater notice period to be given to you in respect of any change in account terms than is set out in these standard terms we will provide such greater period of notice.
Subject to the specific requirements of 5.4 we will give you notice of changes under Condition 5:
1. by letter or other personal notice or
2. by general notice in our branches and Head Office and on our web site, together with advertisements in two or more national newspapers of our choice, within 3 working days of the change. You can find out which are the relevant newspapers by contacting any branch.
If at any time the requirements of the Banking Code in respect of notifying such changes to account terms are more favourable to you we will comply with such requirements.

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6. Account documents

An 'account document' means a passbook, certificate, card or any similar item, which we designate to be an account document. We will give you an account document, but it will remain our property and must be returned to us whenever we ask, to be brought up to date or for such other purposes as we may reasonably require.
You must produce the relevant account document before making a withdrawal unless the terms and conditions of the particular investment product which you choose permit otherwise.
You must immediately notify us and confirm to us in writing at any branch or at our Head Office if you discover that any account document is missing. After you have:
1. provided such evidence regarding the loss (with written notice of the place or places at which your account has normally been operated)
2. given any indemnity
3. paid any fee which we may reasonably require, we will transfer the amount in the account in our records to a new account and afterwards shall issue you with a new account document.

7. Restricting withdrawals without notice
We can restrict at any time the amount which can be withdrawn from any account. We will only do this if:

we reasonably believe that there may be fraudulent activity or other financial crime affecting the account
we are required to do so by any law, regulation or court order
there is a dispute (which we reasonably believe may be genuine) about the ownership of, or entitlement to, the money in the account
circumstances beyond our reasonable control prevent us from offering a normal service (such as in the event of terrorist threat, computer systems failure or strikes) or
circumstances exist which lead us reasonably to believe our financial stability is under threat (such as where rumours cause actual or potential abnormal levels of cash withdrawals).

In the case of d. and e. above:

we will act proportionately to the circumstances in question
we will take all reasonable steps to ensure that the restrictions are lifted as soon as practical and to minimise the inconvenience to you
we will take into account the interests of Chelsea’s membership as a whole
we will, if practical, give advance notice, and
we may consider exceptions to the restrictions if we are reasonably satisfied that substantial hardship would otherwise be caused.

8. Recognition of other interest/claims
We do not have to recognise the interest or claim of any person other than the account holder(s) in respect of money held in any account, nor will we be liable in any way for failing to recognise such interest or claim, except as required by law.

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9. Succession on death
On proof of the death of any joint account holder, we will recognise only the survivor(s) as having any ownership of or interest in the account and the survivor(s) shall be entitled to operate the account on the same terms.

10. Transferring your investment to another
You can transfer your investment to another person, subject to the conditions applying to your account, our approval and the payment of any necessary fee. No transfer will be valid unless made in a form approved by us and until registered in our records. We may refuse to permit such a transfer without giving any reason.

11. Rules
You will, by opening a share account, become a member of Chelsea Building Society and your rights and obligations as a member will be as set out in our rules. A copy of our rules is available upon request.

12. Indemnity, retention and set off
In the event that you breach your obligations to us under the investment contract you agree to indemnify us in respect of any loss we may suffer as a result. If your account is held jointly then we may hold either of you responsible to indemnify us in respect of any breach of your obligations.

We have the right to retain and set off all money in any account you hold with us against any money you may owe to us (whether under a mortgage, loan, guarantee or otherwise) which is due for payment but which has not been paid. We will give you notice in writing when we have done this. Interest or bonuses will not be paid on any money after it has been used in this way.

13. Service of notice

You will be taken to have received any letter or other personal notice (72 hours) after we have posted it to you.
If we, accidentally, fail to:
1. send to you a communication intended for our savers generally or a category of our savers of which you are one, or
2. display a notice at our Head Office or any branch office this will not make the notice invalid.

14. Unclaimed balances
If you cannot be traced after enquiry, and either:

for a period of 3 years you have made no payment to or withdrawal from your account and the amount in that account is less than £100, or
for a period of 5 years you have made no payment to or withdrawal from your account

We may decide to close that account and the money in it will be retained by us. If, however, you contact us at a later date we will either open a new account for you and credit that account with the amount of money in the closed account or repay the money to you, with interest, at a rate which we reasonably consider to be appropriate.

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15. Recording telephone calls and emails
We may, for security or training purposes, record or monitor telephone calls or emails with or to you.

16. Cooling off
If, within 14 days of you making the opening investment (except where your investment has been accepted for a fixed term) you decide that the type of account you have opened is not appropriate for you, tell us and we will return your investment to you or transfer your investment to another account without penalty provided that any cheque you have paid us has met our cheque clearance period.

17. Charges
We may make charges for items relating to the running of your account and to deduct those charges from the amount in the account. The charges we make will reflect expenses we incur on the cost of staff time and the use of our office and computer facilities.

We can change the charges we make at any time. Changes may include the abolition of, or amendment to, existing charges or the introduction of new charges and may be made if we reasonably believe the change is needed for any of the following reasons (which may relate to circumstances existing at the time or those which are expected to apply in the future):

to reflect, in a proportionate manner, changes which we reasonably make to our products or services or the way we provide them
to reflect, in a proportionate manner, changes in technology or general practice in the consumer savings industry
to reflect, in a proportionate manner, changes in the law or the interpretation of the law, decisions or recommendations of an Ombudsman, regulator or similar person, or any code of practice with which we intend to comply
to enable us to harmonise in a reasonable manner the products or services concerned following any acquisition of savings or investment accounts or any take over of, or merger with, another provider of savings or investment accounts
to correct errors
to enable us to maintain our competitiveness, while having regard to the interests of our consumer savers, in the interests of our business as a whole.

We can also change the charges for any valid reason (other than a valid reason mentioned above) where we reasonably believe change is appropriate.

We will, if we introduce charges or make a change to those charges introduced, tell you not less than 30 days before the charge is to take effect.

18. Restricting deposits
We reserve the right, to enable us to maintain our financial strength in the interests of our business as a whole, to suspend your entitlement to make further deposits into the account. If we exercise this right we will tell you on or before the restriction applies as follows:

by letter or other personal notice, or
by general notice in our branches and Head Office and on our website.

19. Complaints
If you are ever dissatisfied with the service you have received, you should contact our Savings Department and explain why you are dissatisfied. We will always try and resolve your complaint through our internal complaints procedure. However, if that is not possible, you have the right to refer the matter to the Financial Ombudsman Service.

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20. Financial Services Compensation Scheme
Chelsea Building Society is a participant of the Financial Services Compensation Scheme established under the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000. Under the scheme, 100% of the first £50,000 is protected.

Further details relating to the scheme are available on request from us.

21. Survival of terms
If, for any reason, any of these standard terms or the product terms are found to be unenforceable our right to enforce the rest of the terms will remain unaffected.

22. Governing law and jurisdiction

The laws of England and Wales govern the investment contract between us. Any dispute arising out of or in connection with the terms of the account shall be submitted to the exclusive jurisdiction of the English courts.
This contract is written in English and any communication relating to your account shall be in English. No other language shall be used.
Our business is that of a building society and the address of our Head Office is at Thirlestaine Hall, Thirlestaine Road, Cheltenham, Glos. GL53 7AL. We are authorised and regulated by the Financial Services Authority (FSA) and our registered number with the FSA is 206039.

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