With the IMF bail out of Iceland, would you consider leaving money in Icesave?

DocProc

Even at this late date, following the IMF bail out of Iceland, would you consider leaving money in Icesave?

Obviously, there would have to be some safeguards put in place:

eg,

1. If the interest rate is a competitive one? (ie, Although, it might need some downward revision after the recent B of E rate cut?)

and

2. Icesave retains FSCS protection up on the accounts up to £50,000 per customer?

Or, since they had their chance and blew it, is it definitely time to forget Iceland and Icelandic banks and move on?

My own need is for a good interest rate on my savings and somewhere for it which has to be in a safe place with FSCS protection safeguards. It really, doesn't go much further than that.

What do others think?

Swipe

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=1270337

Stewster

DocProc wrote: »

Even at this late date, following the IMF bail out of Iceland, would you consider leaving money in Icesave?

Obviously, there would have to be some safeguards put in place:

eg,

1. If the interest rate is a competitive one? (ie, Although, it might need some downward revision after the recent B of E rate cut?)

and

2. Icesave retains FSCS protection up on the accounts up to £50,000 per customer?

Or, since they had their chance and blew it, is it definitely time to forget Iceland and Icelandic banks and move on?

My own need is for a good interest rate on my savings and somewhere for it which has to be in a safe place with FSCS protection safeguards. It really, doesn't go much further than that.

What do others think?

Not really an option DocProc as Icesave have been declared in default and closed down - except for compensation payments and those who have term savings who elect to leave the money in until maturity.

My advice would be stay away from Iceland - once bitten, twice shy. If they refused to compensate existing savers like myself once (money is coming back from the FSCS tho), its highly likely they would do it again.

Icesaver

Stewster wrote: »

My advice would be stay away from Iceland - once bitten, twice shy. If they refused to compensate existing savers like myself once (money is coming back from the FSCS tho), its highly likely they would do it again.

My sentiments exactly:D

wagdog

DocProc wrote: »

My own need is for a good interest rate on my savings and somewhere for it which has to be in a safe place with FSCS protection safeguards. It really, doesn't go much further than that.

What do others think?

It is exactly that sort of thinking that has led directly to where we find ourselves today.

I'm reading today about the extreme hardship that ordinary Icelanders are now going through -- Economic shock therapy applied in the form of sudden and debilitating austerity. “It feels like you’ve been put in a prison, and you don’t know what you did wrong.” Icelandic bank managers treated the economy of the island like a giant hedge fund, using UK money as a significant part of the leverage. People underestimated the risk that a global margin call could sink a sovereign state. The Icelandic bankers thought they hedged it sufficiently. The FSCS that allowed Icesave to operate thought so too. And so did British account holders.

We were all wrong.

And now UK account holders are at worst being inconvenienced, the FSCS compensation scheme will be paid for by our children's generation, and the citizens of Iceland will pay the biggest price of all.

So now I always try to look beyond my own self interest for all my purchasing decisions. Yesterday I chose not to shop at Primark. I am painfully aware that the coltan in my mobile phone probably came from Congo. And that the lower price of petrol means we're less willing to move to cleaner energy. If this makes me less of a participant in the debt binge in spite of such low interest rates, then so be it. If this makes me a bad consumer who is contributing to the length and depth of this recession, then I am so sorry. Too many people have dropped the ball on this. I'd rather not be among them.

What I've learned about the modern global financial system over the last month horrifies me. So much so I'm slowly coming around to the same point of view as this blog commenter: Capitalism thus suffered the same fatal flaw as Marxism: it was "incapable of recognizing all the corruptions of ambition and power which would creep inevitably into its paradise of innocency."