Best Place for my savings now?

Smitty

MiserlyMartin wrote: »

These are bad times for savers. The demise of icesave and kaupthing has removed some competitive pressure on interest rates between the top paying banks. Now with a 0.5% cut in interest rates I expect the best buys to disappear as soon as LIBOR dips. Also the only safe accounts are the ones paying poor rates!

I agree with you about the competetiveness and know the savings rates will come down... but what AA? backed by HBOS 6.46% AER no strings... monthly interest, ive just opened one as ive CHAPS'd £35k from Firstsave today.... im sure the rate will fall, but hopefully it will still remain competetive

opinions4u

Gwhiz wrote: »

Don't forget the Irish Banks are now 100% guaranteed!

This is a nation with a population 95% smaller than the UK that is already in recession. I genuinely cannot see that they could fulfil a major obligation to UK savers if the worst happens.

Make your own judgement call.

malik999

Where to put savings now.

I can't see anyone who has posted this info so here goes my list.
I will update the below as I find any better rates/banks.

All of the list below will be separate FCSC covered banks i.e. meaning 50k protection for each:

Egg - 6.30%
Tesco - 6.50%
Alliance and Leicester - 6.60%

juicyjude

Many thanks for that info malik999

MimiJane

Done a little research re. Tesco and looks like their finance sector was joint owned between them and RBOS. However, Tesco have recently bought out RBOS and should be soon fully owned by Tesco PLC, so could be as good a bet as any for our savings.

MimiJane

For anyone interested, the link below gives a list of "who owns who" :-

http://www.moneyfacts.co.uk/Savings/articles/who-owns-whom-listings.aspx

Reaper

I avoided the question of the safest banks in the FAQ because I thought it both contentious and pretty irrelevant given the government's attitude to safeguarding savers, but since the question keeps being asked I suppose I should give in and include it.

I was thinking of adding this, but as it's debatable I thought I'd run it by you all first...

Q: I'm still worried. What are the very safest banks?
A: Note that you often miss out on the best rates if you go for the safest banks because their need for cash is less acute.
Government owned: NS&I, Northern Rock (but not currently accepting new savers)
British banks: HSBC
British building societies: Many of the smaller building societies (link to Guardian article here)
Spanish owned: Banks owned by Santander (A&L, Abbey, B&B)

Do you think I should include Irish banks? For some reason they are considered safer because of the unlimited compensation offer, but for somebody with less than £50k I don't why they are any better. Anybody else extra safe I should include?

Robertpestonrules

opinions4u wrote: »

This is a nation with a population 95% smaller than the UK that is already in recession. I genuinely cannot see that they could fulfil a major obligation to UK savers if the worst happens.

Make your own judgement call.

So you reckon the post office is not that safe - I can't help wondering if any of these little places would do what Iceland has done and look after their own first.

Why are the Spanish owned ones considered safer?

chris1

MimiJane wrote: »

For anyone interested, the link below gives a list of "who owns who" :-

http://www.moneyfacts.co.uk/Savings/articles/who-owns-whom-listings.aspx

...though people should be aware it's not up to date.

Reaper

Robertpestonrules wrote: »

Why are the Spanish owned ones considered safer?

Because they didn't indulge in risky banking practices and because the Fool article mentioned in post 4 says that had a particularly low CDS rate at the time of writing.