Very worrying stop press news re Anglo Irish

metrobus

Thats what the savers in Iceland thought.

The bottom line is no one knows what the end result will be one
way or the other.

gozomark

including whether the UK defaults or not as well

JamesJames101

metrobus wrote: »

Thats what the savers in Iceland thought.

The bottom line is no one knows what the end result will be one
way or the other.

No-one knows that the sun will rise tomorrow either - but extremely likely that it will

JamesJames101

We should have a rule on this thread - to post a reply you must be able to name the three biggest differences between the Icelandic and Irish positions

bendipa

melbury wrote: »

Did you make the same mistake as me in being totally honest and saying that you wanted the money back because of the change in T&C's?

For goodness sake! Now that ANG has been nationalised that very act alone means the T&C must have changed, and they have...for the better. Your savings are guaranteed by the Irish government in full without time or limit. That was not the case before nationalisation.

To repeat, unless you seriously believe the Irish government will default on its debts during the time your savings are with them then you will not lose your savings. Incidentally, so far not even Iceland has defaulted on its debts as it was bailed out last October by the IMF and Scandinavian countries. So if you think Ireland will be the first western country in recent economic history allowed to go bust it would spell the end of the EU and the Euro as Portugal, Greece and Spain are all in similar positions. It's not impossible that this could all happen, but if it did don't believe your savings in UK banks or building societies would be any safer, as panic would then spread to those institutions here. After all if it happened in Ireland it could happen here will be the scenario. Our debt situation isn't exactly robust either.

gozomark

JamesJames101 wrote: »

We should have a rule on this thread - to post a reply you must be able to name the three biggest differences between the Icelandic and Irish positions

are they that the irish position doesn't involve a condom, cod or any other c ?

GeorgeHowell

Whether or not Ireland defaulting is a realistic scenario, does anyone really want all the angst and the worry ? Even if recompense was forthcoming, how much aggro, uncertainty, and delay might precede it. People were beside themselves with Iceland -- why risk going through it all again. Which? has declined to include in their savings best buy tables banks etc which are not fully and unequivocally covered by the UK FSCS because of what happened with Iceland. If people have bonds locked up and can't get their money out that is unfortunate. But anyone else choosing to remain with, or even place funds in, one of these overseas outfits is asking for trouble. I guess some people like to sail close to the wind and run close to the edge in life. It gives them a bit of a thrill to think they are taking a gamble for a bit of advantage. Fair enough but they can't complain if it all goes belly-up. Anyone who does not think like that is well advised to steer clear and start worrying primarily about the return of their money, not just the return on it.

gozomark

and what about the risk of relying on the FSCS guarantee ?

you seem to take it as a given that the UK is safer than Ireland

GeorgeHowell

gozomark wrote: »

and what about the risk of relying on the FSCS guarantee ?

Well if anyone won't take that risk then they literally do need to keep their money in banknotes under the floorboards. But I take that to be the lowest risk of all. Firstly we are a much bigger economy than the likes of Eire, and it would take a lot more to bankrupt the UK. Secondly any UK government which declined to underwrite the FSCS and which allowed savers with <=£50,000 in a UK based bank to lose all or some of their money would firstly risk destabilising the banking system entirely, and secondly consign themselves to opposition for decades. So I think this is as low a risk as it gets, and certainly lower than the risk of losing all life-savings by theft or fire due to keeping those banknotes under the floorboards !

gozomark

I'd say the German banking system is lower risk than the UK one