ICICI 1 year fixed rate account 5.1%

bellybuttonfluffman

Yesterday, I transferred a dollop of dosh from my ICICI HiSave account to a new ICICI 1 year Fixed Rate Account, expecting to get 4.65%. Received an email this morning confirming that the account has now been opened... and the rate will 5.1% :-)

mjmal51

Exactly the same here, transferred on Thurs to their 4.65% fixed and got the email on Fri saying the rate is 5.1%! Good news.

azureblue_2

So are we now happy that India's icici is safe and good?

savetilibleed

Looka like these rates are only for existing customers - is that right? Their website isn't clear on this.

And yes, what about it's safety - given Martin's warnings and their low (BBB-) Fitch rating

KingL

this is money's article on ICICI stability updated a couple of days ago:
http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/saving-and-banking/article.html?in_article_id=453104&in_page_id=7

sheslookinhot

after the Icesave scare, I will leave a few extra interest points from foreign banks well alone.

KingL

savetilibleed wrote: »

Looka like these rates are only for existing customers - is that right? Their website isn't clear on this.

The 5.1% has gone now, but generally their rates are available to new and existing customers alike.

bellybuttonfluffman

savetilibleed wrote: »

And yes, what about it's safety - given Martin's warnings and their low (BBB-) Fitch rating

I'm a newbie so I must be missing something here. Aren't our savings safe with ICICI up to £50K? If the worst comes to the worst, we may have to wait a few months to get our dosh back, but in a 1 yr FRA we're expecting it to be tied up for 12 months anyway. I 'm sorry, I just cannot see what the problem is.

HouseHuntr

Yes they are safe up to £50K, with exactly the same protection as with Lloyds, Barclays, HSBC etc.

The issue is that ICICI credit rating is not particularly high meaning they are more suseptible to collapse, though you're still get your money back if they do go to the wall, maybe just not exactly when you want it, but a few weeks later. For some it's worth the slight risk, others not.

andromache_2

bellybuttonfluffman wrote: »

Yesterday, I transferred a dollop of dosh from my ICICI HiSave account to a new ICICI 1 year Fixed Rate Account, expecting to get 4.65%. Received an email this morning confirming that the account has now been opened... and the rate will 5.1% :-)

Same happened to me - asked to open the fixed-rate account yesterday and got an e-mail today saying I would be getting 5.1% rather than 4.65%. So apparently it's still available?? I'm confused but I'm not going to complain

withnell

The fact ICICI aims mainly to offer fixed rate accounts means that it is less susceptible to having a run on its finances (notice that the "early access" products are no longer unavailable).

The main reason for the icelandic bank collapses (as i'm sure has been mentioned before) is that a large proportion of customers tried to take out their money at the same time, and as banks only have about 10% of their assets in liquid form they were unable to meet the withdrawal obligations.