Icesave/Kaupthing - is Martin to blame?

Nick_C

steveb147 wrote: »

no-one has lost any money yet and if the bank goes under then they will get it all back if they have listened to his advice about the compensation scheme limits.

Problem is, people who have deposited £50K with Icesave might lose c£15K (€20K) if the Icelandic Government cannot afford to pay through its compensation scheme, which now looks likely (as Iceland is essentially bankrupt).

Their Nordic friends have not come to the rescue.

see http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/2008/oct/07/savings.banks1

steveb147

Nick_C wrote: »

Problem is, people who have deposited £50K with Icesave might lose c£15K (€20K) if the Icelandic Government cannot afford to pay through its compensation scheme, which now looks likely (as Iceland is essentially bankrupt).

Their Nordic friends have not come to the rescue.

see http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/2008/oct/07/savings.banks1

Indeed Nick, but we just don't know yet whether that is the case or not. In any case Martin DID warn about this and the fact remains that people chose to make the decision to invest (and it is to INVEST) in a foreign bank.

OOPS

TO BLAME ?

' Accumulation of wealth to keep us feelingsafe ' ......we all save and build and consume and compete as were all so damn lost .Its not the time for fear and not the time to panic but to look at whats real and what counts - Were all going to die........even the billionaires.....its time to look at whats real.You will get upto £50,000 back i wopuld say unless the whole banking system collapses worldwide and uk plc goes insolvent.


I personally have alot to lose - thats my inheritance in icesave and all i have Accept LOVE and the belief that the love of money is the root of all evil......

its time people started to value whats real and not money maybe and arnt we being taught this ? what you notice is that NO ONES in control of this , .........FEAR is dominating this via stock brokers and money men who fear not making bonuses to pay HUGE morgages......i hope we all learn from this but please dont fear for lose of money , there is so much more to life ( and i stand to lose £50,000 or maybe scrape it back but i believe that what matters is that i dont lose the plot and remeber whats real.......money isnt , wealth isnt , whats real is what we share , memories , love for other people and above all what we believe.

If your one of those who see nothing but money / accumulation / fast cars and desire then maybe its time you asked yourself who you worship ?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mammon

invest in a little more love , sharing and above all trust in life.......it ends very soon for us all and lets hope we get some cash back but do not sell your soul to the fear of not.

Everythings perfect./

LucyTheDwarf

31May2008 wrote: »

Yes and that information was helpful - but where was the warning that both banks were about to go t*ts up?

Have both banks gone tits up? I wasn't aware...

nb_bob

Rafter wrote: »

Martin is NOT to blame, but he has made money as a result of click throughs from this site.

The problem is the culture of some of this sites users who go for the very cheapest deal or the highest rate without any personal accountablilty for that decision.

So you pick the cheapest insurance, and then find when you make a claim the cover is not up to scratch.

You plump for the best savings rate, and find out the bank offering it had an unsustainable business model.

But is it Martins job to regulate the insurance and banking industry? Of course it isn't!

It is the regulators who allowed banks on a small island with a popultation the size of Bristol in the north atlantic to 'borrow' billions from UK savers at very high rates without any kind of levy, which now potentially means the financial system and tax payers picking up the bill for this binge.

It is also the greed of some savers who thought that earning a few £s more in interest was better than using lower risk large UK banks or even National Savings as a home for at least some of their savings.

It is the banks themselves that thought that growth at any cost and the merry go round of ever increasing financial engineering, house price growth and mergers and takeovers would carry on forever.

It was the naivity of the government that they thought they had forever banished boom and bust and that allowing people to borrow 5x their salaries and 125% of house values was a good thing.

It was the stupidity of housebuyers who thought that 2 bed flats in leeds were worth £200k and would command sky high rents when you could pick up a similar property for £50k 10 years earlier.

We are probably all to blame in some way and most of us end up paying for these mistakes through higher taxes and poor rates. I just hope those who have made a fast buck from their huge banking bonuses or bailing out of property at the right time will show some charity for those who will suffer financial hardship in the years ahead as a result of their gains.

R.

Hear, hear.

nb_bob

nb_bob wrote: »

Hear, hear.

Or is that 'Here, here'?

VanessaAtalanta

You have to take responsibility for your own decisions, no matter what you are advised.

Martin gave excellent info on his site. I'd never heard of Icebank until I read about it on here. As a result I put a lot of money into Icesave and made a nice amount of interest, which I was very pleased with. However, I made a point of checking out news about Icebank now and then. Earlier this year, I saw an article in The Times about the Icelandic banks, at which point I followed Martin's advice again and withdrew down to the £35,000 limit. I didn't want to do it because the interest was so good, but I decided it was better to lose a bit of interest than a major sum of money. Three weeks ago, I decided it was all too uncertain and withdrew the rest.

I checked this site for advice where to put it and Martin was recommending Northern Rock, so I moved the whole lot there.

I am very very grateful to Martin for all the information he gives, but I check it out very carefully and keep my eye out for news of the organisations I've invested in. There were clear indications in the press that the Iceland banks were a risky choice.

You can't blame anyone else for your bad decisions; neither can you just dump your savings somewhere, forget about them and hope for the best.

steveb147

VanessaAtalanta wrote: »

You have to take responsibility for your own decisions, no matter what you are advised.

Martin gave excellent info on his site. I'd never heard of Icebank until I read about it on here. As a result I put a lot of money into Icesave and made a nice amount of interest, which I was very pleased with. However, I made a point of checking out news about Icebank now and then. Earlier this year, I saw an article in The Times about the Icelandic banks, at which point I followed Martin's advice again and withdrew down to the £35,000 limit. I didn't want to do it because the interest was so good, but I decided it was better to lose a bit of interest than a major sum of money. Three weeks ago, I decided it was all too uncertain and withdrew the rest.

I checked this site for advice where to put it and Martin was recommending Northern Rock, so I moved the whole lot there.

I am very very grateful to Martin for all the information he gives, but I check it out very carefully and keep my eye out for news of the organisations I've invested in. There were clear indications in the press that the Iceland banks were a risky choice.

You can't blame anyone else for your bad decisions; neither can you just dump your savings somewhere, forget about them and hope for the best.

Here, here :money:

LucyTheDwarf

baby_boomer wrote: »

The MSE online "culture" - as opposed to Martin's official statements - was pro-Iceland.

I think you'll find the culture here was anti-let's-cause-a-run-on-Iceland's-banks, and pro-great-rates/service/products etc.

baby_boomer

And it successfully stifled discussion. So it's worth considering whether you want to maintain the same approach.

Anyone wanting to engage in discussion was usually accused of being

a) someone with shares / call options in UK banks
b) a journalist at the Mail on Sunday or Telegraph who weren't getting ad revenue from the Icelandic banks (they didn't need it as they got free publicity on MSE)
c) someone with put options in the banking system or a short seller who wanted to start a run.

I think I may just about have qualified for a) as I had 250 shares in B&B :rotfl:

I personally always worry when discussion is closed down as it can be harder to get at the truth.