Icesave: Can't get money out.

Jonbvn

jp01 wrote: »

Care to read the TELEGRAPH, WALL STREET JOURNAL, TIMES, FINANCIAL NEWS.Bloomberg,Canadian Press
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122308508391204449.html?mod=googlenews_wsj
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601109&sid=aQwIFKhLTL2Q&refer=home
http://canadianpress.google.com/article/ALeqM5gOQoilCF7C4OIhJ25KHlqmVGieEg
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/oct/04/iceland
http://www.efinancialnews.com/homepage/content/2452053691

Wow! Several media outlets all reporting basically the same story, so you must be right.:rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes:

manhattan

jp01

Don't take this the wrong way but why are you preaching bad news for the Iceland banks?

Is it because:

You lost your bankers job so are letting out some anger?

You know something we don't know?

Or you're just trolling?

For you're info I also have 30k with icesave and although I am not really worried I am going to put them into premium bonds at the end of the month as I have thinking about this for a while.

lolat332

just pulled about 40% of my savings from icesave - my excuse ?? - I WILL need the money in next couple of months to pay off credit cards (aka stoozing) so can't wait for any compensation scheme to take 3 months to pay out.

freddykrueger

OK here is another angle and this is just my own personal "feelings" - I do not have an excessive amount with Icesave but enough that if I lost it for any reason it would hurt. It is all in an ISA and with past investments I would deem myself to be low to medium risk - therefore part of me says just withdraw now to my nominated account and lose the tax wrapper or go through the transfer process to somewhere perceived a little safer such as NS&I

Any thoughts? I'm not trolling just feeling uneasy.

jp01_2

isofa wrote: »

Are they safer than a UK bank - that's debatable, are they worse than a UK bank - that's debatable too, everyone will have a counter opinion.

Yes I would. KE for example is fully protected under the FSCS protection, 35K now, 50K in a few days.

They can't use their novation clause without 30 days notice - as per the T+Cs, so if it ever did come this serious, one could move money away in such times.

Excellent interest rate on instant access 6.55% and much higher on fixed rate.

The best customer service I've experienced, instant answer to telephone calls, a website that is secure and works.

Just my opinion.

There are means to measure the stability of a bank.
It is called Credit Default Swaps. These are basically how much you insure bonds for against a default.
For your information when Bradford and Bingley went tits up it had a rating of 684. The CDS rating of Icelandic bank Landsbanki (Icesave) has also rocketed over the past week by 213% to 4112.2. In other words for every £1m of Icesave bonds held, an individual would have to pay an incredibly shocking £411,210 to insure them.


To put it further into perspective HBOS had a rating of 236.
Most UK banks are well under 200.

http://www.moneyweek.com/personal-finance/credit-default-swaps-how-to-spot-the-riskiest-banks.aspx

This article poised the question back in March ''what is the market telling us now''?
The markets seem to be telling us that ''there is a very real default risk here''.They said then that Kaputthing/Glitnir Bank and Icesave ''these banks are starting to be priced for bankruptcy risk''.
This article was written at CDS levels of 700- 800. So if that was the case in March what is the risk when Icesaves CDS rocketed over the past week by 213% to 4112.2.

Of course you have to form your own opinion on the sustainability of a business that when it raises money is having to pay sky high rates, whilst paying savers just 6.65% :question:

With events in Iceland over the past few days moving very quickly we might have an answer sooner rather than later.

home_alone

Deleted_User wrote: »

The NEW £50,000 deposit protection limit applies to Icesave, and comes into effect on Tuesday 7 October.

http://www.icesave.co.uk/important-information.html

In other words..... "Don't worry"......."be happy"!!:whistle: (Great song!)

Long live ICESAVE - Hip hip......

Goldfinger.

I was in the process of taking out some money to bring it down to the lower level I have now cancelled the transaction.

gary

Swipe

freddykrueger wrote: »

OK here is another angle and this is just my own personal "feelings" - I do not have an excessive amount with Icesave but enough that if I lost it for any reason it would hurt. It is all in an ISA and with past investments I would deem myself to be low to medium risk - therefore part of me says just withdraw now to my nominated account and lose the tax wrapper or go through the transfer process to somewhere perceived a little safer such as NS&I

Any thoughts? I'm not trolling just feeling uneasy.

There's no way I'd be prepared to lose my tax wrapper. I would transfer it to another ISA via the correct method.

EalingSaver

jp01 wrote: »

There are means to measure the stability of a bank.
It is called Credit Default Swaps. These are basically how much you insure bonds for against a default.

Umm. So your point here is that KE and IceSave have been operating in an enviroment where their CDS rates have been extremely high since at least the start of this year. And certainly much higher for all of that time than A&L, B&B, HBOS. And probably if we went back further higher than NRs CDS was. Umm. So they should have gone bust well before those lot got into severe trouble then.....

Yes CDS rates are worrying. Taken at straight face value there are alarming. And have been for some time. But perhaps the reason they haven't keeled over is because they are well funded and aren't heavily reliant on borrowing from the markets.

Of course if enough people keep saying they will go bust, we'll all withdrawl our money and make it so.

EalingSaver

Article worth a read. Surprised someone else hasn't posted on this, but maybe they have and I missed it.

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/3822c15a-901a-11dd-9890-0000779fd18c.html


In summary Landsbanki has sold a bunch of its international operations, inclduing london stock brokerage operations. Capital raising. Speculation it is raising capital in order to acquire Glitnir from the Icelandic government.

Andrew64

Just remember that Landsbanki (Icesave) is covered by the 'passport scheme', so if it did go down the tube you would have to apply to the Icelandic compensation scheme first.