'Icesave... angry, frustrated and upset...' blog discussion

NeilJ1975

The money i transferred and was told was "processed" on Monday night has now been returned to icesave with the message "correction item posted". In my eyes this is tantamount to stealing and i am furious. Whilst i accept i have to claim my untransfered monies (remainder of my bond and isa) through the compensation scheme, icesave would have had to physically alter and stop Monday's electronic transaction from happening. Thats theft isn't it??

I only presume that this has/will happen to other poeple? Is there a chance of pursuing the icelandic bankers in the criminal courts for this theft/fraud, maybe we could get a class action going, anyone a lawyer???

On a related note, iceland the country seem only to be concerned by their own citizens. the UK government has very kindly in my view stepped in to cover UK citizens in what is the fault of a foreign company. Is the plan of the iceland govermnet to steal all these unfinalised transfer funds and only give them back to icelandic people, steal from the Brits and give to their own???? what other conclusion can be drawn???????

payless

NeilJ1975 wrote: »

The money i transferred and was told was "processed" on Monday night has now been returned to icesave with the message "correction item posted". In my eyes this is tantamount to stealing and i am furious. Whilst i accept i have to claim my untransfered monies (remainder of my bond and isa) through the compensation scheme, icesave would have had to physically alter and stop Monday's electronic transaction from happening. Thats theft isn't it??

I only presume that this has/will happen to other poeple? Is there a chance of pursuing the icelandic bankers in the criminal courts for this theft/fraud, maybe we could get a class action going, anyone a lawyer???

On a related note, iceland the country seem only to be concerned by their own citizens. the UK government has very kindly in my view stepped in to cover UK citizens in what is the fault of a foreign company. Is the plan of the iceland govermnet to steal all these unfinalised transfer funds and only give them back to icelandic people, steal from the Brits and give to their own???? what other conclusion can be drawn???????

interesting point, as I believe at that time they were not in administration

vivatifosi

NeilJ1975 wrote: »

On a related note, iceland the country seem only to be concerned by their own citizens. the UK government has very kindly in my view stepped in to cover UK citizens in what is the fault of a foreign company. Is the plan of the iceland govermnet to steal all these unfinalised transfer funds and only give them back to icelandic people, steal from the Brits and give to their own???? what other conclusion can be drawn???????

Perhaps it isn't fair. But on the other hand, who would want to be from Iceland at the moment? The BBC is reporting that people in Iceland face interest on their debt payments going up 50%, inflation of 30%, mass lay-offs and frozen wages (no pun intended). The government and its people have to be completely overwhelmed by this. Any political leader not putting their population first in the face of such adversity would be out of office by the end of the week anyway.

RealityCheck_2

ThrobsBlackHat wrote: »

I think you are the one who may have missed the point.

A "Best buy" table merely accesses publically available information, interest rates, and publishes the highest. It does not claim to do any more or any less than do a comparison of interest rates.

He also does a "best buy" table for cashback sites but this does not constitute a recommendation.

He also does a "best buy" table for flights, but this does not constitute a recommendation.

He also does a "Best buy" table for international phone calls, but guess what, this does not constitute a recommendation.

If many people had not found Icesave through Moneysavingexpert they would have found it on moneysupermarket, moneymatters, in the pages of any tabloid or broadsheets. "Best buy" on interest rates is exactly that. If MSE users had found a BETTER deal on another site they would be complaining to Martin for not having the market leading product in his table. He is not a financial advisor or an analyst - he does not give risk ratings on banks, mortgage lenders, phone companies, insurance companies. He just publishes publically available information to save other people from having to look for it.

Confused or compare the market don't give you recommendation on which insurance to take out - they give you a comparison. You have to analyse the strength of policy, hire car, excess etc etc and work out which is the best for you.

Unless we are saying that Martin is so big and famous that everything he says is taken as gospel so he can't say anything for fear of leading the general public astray, which would render this entire project completely voiceless.

When Martin tells you ina Best Buy table which supermarket has the cheapest own brand beans does that constitutue a recommendation? If those beans were found to contain toxins and recalled and users of MSE became ill and even died from eating them would Martin be to blame?

The Icelandic banks did have the best rates which is why even our local government bodies had millions of pounds stashed away in them!

You're still not getting it. The fact is, its not just best buy tables for information only. Read Martin's blog again, he admits to recommending. Numerous posts on this thread refer to Martin recommending this and that - it all amounts to a recommendation.

Clearly, that is not just best buy tables for information only, and thats where the mark has been overstepped. Its not the case that just one person has got the wrong idea and taken it as informatio only, there many, many people who have clearly taken what Martin as said to be a recommendation as his own blog, narratives and media commentary imply this.

A quote from his blog:

"Icesave, of course, has been recommended many times on this site"

In his own words he is saying it is a recommendation. You need to acknowledge that, as does he. He doesn't just publish the tables, he goes further than that.

Your analogy with comparison sites is not like for like. Such sites inherently tailor the product to the individual. MSE is a blanket recommendation.

If you look at the other financial information sites you mention, they do have editorial content but are very careful not to use the word recommendation in any way - explicit, implicit, implied - whatever you want to call it.

My point has nothing to do with who had the best rates or not, so do, calm down dear.

The local government bodies you speak of had commercial deposits, not retail offerings, and they will have gone through the due diligence and have an audit trail as to why they were selected - they will not have gone on to a comparison website to do this (if they did, considering this is public money, we're talking negligence here).

WelshGandalf

Martin did nothing wrong. People always want to blame someone! It seems that most of the people who are saying he did do something wrong are the ones who don't have savings there. All he did was lay out the facts - you pays your money you takes your choice.

It looks like we'll get our money back anyway, even if we don't get interest - it's not so bad. It means I'll get back 100% of what I put in rather than 103%.

JPC

Yet another case of rip-off Britain!! We are seen as a soft touch by the rest of the world...!! If Iceland dont pay up, I think we should invade and ceaze their assets, in particular thier hot springs to help our energy needs...!! well we did it with Iraq didnt we!!??

ThrobsBlackHat

RealityCheck wrote: »

A quote from his blog:

"Icesave, of course, has been recommended many times on this site"

Recommended as what?

The top of the best buy table? Whatever pays top interest is "recomended" - that is what a "best buy" table does. Recommended by anyone who publishes a best buy table of interest rates.

Recommended as a stable future source of income and prosperity? No. It was just a best buy chart and that had the best rate so came out top regularly, hence it was regularly "recommended".

cvd

it would be interesting to see how many' investors' out there agreed with you. Most people regard their banks as risk free unstitutions......

They are wrong.
Banks have failed in the past and will fail in the future.
Banks have credit ratings which are supposed to give us some indication of the risk of depositing our money there - unfortunately they are sometimes very inaccurate. Indeed, I believe it is often impossible for a depositor to obtain accurate information about how safe a particular bank is.

Also, there is no such thing as a 100% guarantee whatever any government may say.

RealityCheck_2

ThrobsBlackHat wrote: »

Recommended as what?

The top of the best buy table? Whatever pays top interest is "recomended" - that is what a "best buy" table does. Recommended by anyone who publishes a best buy table of interest rates.

Recommended as a stable future source of income and prosperity? No. It was just a best buy chart and that had the best rate so came out top regularly, hence it was regularly "recommended".

you're being completely ambiguous.

so is it a recommendation or a best buy table for information ?

you can't have it both ways.

ThrobsBlackHat

Anything that makes it into a "best buy" table is obviously a "best buy"

It depends what you mean by recommendation. At no point is a risk based investment recommendation made. It is a presentation of publically available facts as a service. The only thing that dictates what is on there is the interest rate, not personal opinion, or personal "recommendation".

Any best buy table in any newspaper or on any website in the last 12 months would "recommend" Icesave as it almost always came out top for interest rate. That is not a judgement on the health of the bank, security, credit rating, future success, strategy decisions etc. If you want those go and speak to an IFA.