Nationwide dilemma

Norma_Scott

Hi

My husband and I have a large amount of money in a 1 yr e bond with Nationwide. We put it in my name as I do not pay tax. If anything went wrong with Nationwide we would only get back half of our money. My question is should we put it in our joint names and pay the extra tax or risk it and stay as we are (that is if we can change to joint names , its due to mature early Feb). Same as other people we need all we can get out of this investment to help with pensions.
Thanks

isofa

Your post hints that you have 100K saved, as 50K is protected per person, or 100K joint.

The risk of a bank crashing is minute, but does exist as we've seen over the past couple of years. However I cannot personally see the UK government allowing savers in a UK bank/BS to lose a penny even over the 50K limit, after all, they are protecting people in Icesave accounts with hundreds of thousands over the limit. No savers in the UK has lost a penny during all this financial mess, even those with savings in Icesave/Kaupthing.

It's a calculated risk, and this is just my personal opinion - I'd leave it. But! If it is your only money and you can't afford any risk at all, add the joint name just in case, and next time never save more than 50K with any one institution. You could have put 50K in one bank and 50K in another, with zero risk at all, or better still just under 50K to cope with the interest payments.

Apreciar

Nationwide is the strongest BS in the UK and was included in the recent government/bank meetings. The chances are so remote of you losing anything in the Nationwide that if it were to happen this would be the least of your problems as the whole country would be switching the lights of and shutting shop.
Your concerns are fully understood after recent events but you should not really have concerns regarding NW.