citibank account: money protected as in a UK bank account?

bitsandpieces

I opened a sterling and dollar account through citibank.co.uk, to handle some earnings in dollars. The website says that "In the United Kingdom, Citibank International plc is authorised and regulated by the Financial Services Authority. FSA reference number 122342" http://www.citibank.co.uk/personal/banking/info/aboutcitibank/index.htm?merchant=citi

Given the current problems in the US, I was wondering if it works like a 'normal' UK account - will my money be protected by the UK government in the (unlikely, I hope!) event that citigroup goes under?

Thanks in advance.

occamsrazor

bitsandpieces wrote: »

Given the current problems in the US, I was wondering if it works like a 'normal' UK account - will my money be protected by the UK government in the (unlikely, I hope!) event that citigroup goes under?

If Citigroup as a whole goes under... I think we are all pretty screwed! But as to your question, Citibank UK like all other UK banks are not covered by the UK Government as such (except Northern Rock) but are indeed covered by the UK's FSCS compensation scheme up to £35k per depositor. If you hold dollars or other foreign currency they are covered as well, just at whatever exchange rate is applicable at the time...

Short_Seller

Citi are doing a useful US dollar account that pays 3% for the first six months and is covered by the 50K or dollar equivalent (around 85K @1.70 to the pound)

Handy if people are planning to diversify there savings if they expect the pound to continuing to weaken against the US dollar.

Link to Citi's dollar account.

http://www.citibank.co.uk/personal/banking/saveinvest/saving/fsaver/usdfsaver.htm?merchant=citi

rboltonuk

just out of interest do you have any ideas how to convert the dollar's back to sterling w/o payign the transaction charges? i bought some at the beginning of the yr at 2 to the £. am tryign to avoid waiting for people to go on holiday and offering them at slightly higher than they would get from a fx as lets face it doing business with f&f is never straight forward!