Ex-ICEsavers - where now?

blondieleopard

LGG wrote: »

not sure where to put it im looking for a guarented rate. nothing worse than opening an account and within a month or so its dropped to a crappy amount of intrest. anyone know of any accounts with a guarented (sp?) rate. want to keep in a uk bank aswell. also have an ISA. but the whole natwest thing of having to open up a current account is abit of a turn off also i dont want to invest with them if they are still conencted to huntingdon sciences

hi lgg..
are they connected to huntingdon sciences?

hra_2

So much could change between now and even two weeks away that it is very difficult to plan. Mine will go into an existing Nationwide E-saver temporarily.

The current turmoil has thrown up one added complication which makes the fixed-rate bond route less attractive:

"Early closure" clauses on fixed rate bonds may not be all that they seem - i.e. if you look to these clauses as security in case the bank runs into difficulties part-way through the term, you might have a nasty surprise when you find it takes much longer than expected to withdraw the funds. The Halifax, for instance, are telling customers it will take up to 8 working days to close an eligible fixed-rate Websaver (and there is no written guarantee of any timescale at all) - obviously too long in the event of a real panic.

DocProc

An elderly lady receives an email from the son of a deceased African general, asking to transfer millions of pounds into her account for a 20 per cent cut.

All the general's son needs is her sort code and account number. She emails back the details.

A couple of minutes later she receives an email back from the general's son:

"Icesave? What is this, some kind of scam?"

shindigger

LGG wrote: »

not sure where to put it im looking for a guarented rate. nothing worse than opening an account and within a month or so its dropped to a crappy amount of intrest. anyone know of any accounts with a guarented (sp?) rate. want to keep in a uk bank aswell. also have an ISA. but the whole natwest thing of having to open up a current account is abit of a turn off also i dont want to invest with them if they are still conencted to huntingdon sciences

Actually, there is something worse.
Its called opening a fixed rate account with Icesave in Decemebr last year (from which you cannot extract yourself under any circumstances) 4 weeks before the first rumbles of trouble start in the Sunday broadsheet finance pages.
A very uncomfortable time has thankfully been brought to an end.
I will never, willfully, lose control of my cash like that again.
Interset rates are really not the story for the next 3 years.
Be very careful who you fix your money with, if at all.

shindigger

2 weeks ago, the Guardian published an in depth run down of all the mutuals in Britain. I narrowed it down to the Bath Building Society. Unspectacular but have vey low wholesale borrowing requirements and have funded nearly all their mortgages (at low LTVs) from deposits.
They have local branch agency offices in local Estate Agents etc.
Just how it used to be when i left school.
They do a fixed rate of 6.01%, however, im not fixing my money with anyone at the moment.
If you can, it would be worth trying to find that article. Very enlightening. There are plenty of mutuals that run along similar lines.
Im on dial up at the moment:mad: , so im afriad im not looking for it now.
Maybe tomorrow.

Pssst

Nationwide-big and strong and with some good deals...

geosaver

shindigger wrote: »

Actually, there is something worse.
Its called opening a fixed rate account with Icesave in Decemebr last year (from which you cannot extract yourself under any circumstances) 4 weeks before the first rumbles of trouble start in the Sunday broadsheet finance pages.
A very uncomfortable time has thankfully been brought to an end.
I will never, willfully, lose control of my cash like that again.
Interset rates are really not the story for the next 3 years.
Be very careful who you fix your money with, if at all.

SNAP! I did exactly the same thing!

nilrem_2

Well when I get my cash it's going into my Natwest esaver (the one with the bonus rate) until I find another place for it but this time it's staying in the UK.

EalingSaver

I am just eternally grateful that I started taking action to wind down my IceSave position 12-18 months ago. Still got caught with about £25k in there, £10k in ISA. But back then I had pretty much every penny in there, in excess of £200k. I know others will be thinking "you lucky b***d" to have that money, but I have most of my assets in cash; virtually no pension arrangements, and should have traded up property a long time ago. So this was my alternative. Thankfully, whether it was a little before NR or just afterwards I can't remember, but a spent a lot of weekends over a protracted period opening up new accounts and shifting money around to get shifted into chunks below the protected limits.

Had I not, and had been sitting with in excess of £200k when IceSave died, I hate to think what state of mind I would have been in. Its been bad enough as it is, what with my OH having most of her savings in there.

arjar

For what it's worth, I've decided to lock into fixed term bonds (given speculation about where interest rates are going). I got 6.4% for a year at Chelsea BS last week (though I think that may have been replaced with a 6% bond already). On Friday I put a lump into the Stroud & Swindon for a year at 6.45%. If I'm allowed to leave my Icesave 2 year fix in place somewhere safe at the 6.6% I contracted for I'll leave that where it is. My thinking is that any fix in a UK bank or BS at over 6% for a year or two may be a reasonably good bet in present circumstances. But I could well be wrong - and I'm interested in counter views.