ICICI term deposit?

vx220fan

In a nutshell:

Would you consider dumping 35k into an ICICI 1-year term deposit?

I know ICICI signs up to the FSA Banking Code so I'd get my money back if something goes wrong. But I also know that savers with ICICI in India have been rushing to the ATMs to withdraw their hard-earned dough.

I'm looking for opinions on how safe the UK arm of the bank really is. Are you guys moving money into or away from ICICI?

Thanks

Andrew.

backfoot

vx220fan wrote: »

In a nutshell:

But I also know that savers with ICICI in India have been rushing to the ATMs to withdraw their hard-earned dough.

What's your source for this statement?

vx220fan

This 2-day-old India Times article.

backfoot

As I see it, the £35k guarantee is as strong for ICICI bank as it is for say Nationwide.

Any reported rumours of financial instability of any institution seems to sending folks into a frenzy. The report itself seems to have said the panic has abated so no doubt attention will fall somewhere else until someone wants to have a go at ICICI again.

I don't know what guarantees India has for savers within their own country and this may be why some customers panicked.

Paul_Herring

vx220fan wrote: »

In a nutshell:

Would you consider dumping 35k into an ICICI 1-year term deposit?

No. But nothing to do with the reasons you posted.

ICICI are crap at dealing with customers, when they need to. Which in my experience was far too often. (Missing interest, duplicate DD's...)

vx220fan

Thanks for the comments so far. I actually already have 20k in term deposits with ICICI and might open another with 15k to get up to the 35k 'safe' limit. I've not personally had any problems with service or the website (even though the site is a bit naff) - but I know people who have.

Paul_Herring

If you're thinking about the 35K limit, you should realise that should you need to actually rely on it, you won't be getting any interest at all.

LongTermLurker

vx220fan wrote: »

This 2-day-old India Times article.

I've given up reading scaremongers' stories (not commenting on vx220fan, rather the news hacks behind the "scoop")

To journalists, a bank is as juicy as someone who files a libel complaint - if they think they can dig up a bit of dirt to get more publicity they will do so. I can't even be bothered to click the link.

If you're going with ICICI, then the term deposit is a better idea than the instant access because at least you won't be dealing with the dreaded Customer Dis-service Department on a regular basis (though as Paul says, interest is paid on at the end of the year, so the risk is potentially zero interest, the reward is a potential 7.2%)

backfoot

LongTermLurker wrote: »

I've given up reading scaremongers' stories (not commenting on vx220fan, rather the news hacks behind the "scoop")

To journalists, a bank is as juicy as someone who files a libel complaint - if they think they can dig up a bit of dirt to get more publicity they will do so. I can't even be bothered to click the link.

If you're going with ICICI, then the term deposit is a better idea than the instant access because at least you won't be dealing with the dreaded Customer Dis-service Department on a regular basis (though as Paul says, interest is paid on at the end of the year, so the risk is potentially zero interest, the reward is a potential 7.2%)

Why wouldn't accrued interest be paid ? Say if I invest £30k for one year,what happens?

LongTermLurker

backfoot wrote: »

Why wouldn't accrued interest be paid ? Say if I invest £30k for one year,what happens?

I think interest is paid at the end of the year by ICICI - so if they went bust in June, no interest would have been added and they wouldn't add any then because they would have gone bust.

Kaupthing Edge are similar, but they pay at the end of the term, which may be 3 years away. That can be a good thing if your tax liabilities will reduce in that time, but means you won't get proportionate interest during the term.

dag_2

I've already got a term deposit with ICICI from a few months ago, not as big as 35K though.

Thanks for the article link. The way I look at it is that if there's already been a mini-run on a bank, and the bank has come out of the other side of it without collapsing (like what that article reports), then that's an incredibly good thing.