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How Safe are our Savings ?

I understand that the FSA will guarantee your savings up to an amount of £50K per financial institution (£100K for joint named account), but recollect comments that it is not sufficiently funded to honour this in the event that a Bank (or our country) goes "bust". Given some of the articles and scaremongering around the state of our nation, I am seriously considering insuring against this possibility!
Has anyone considered this, or am I throwing away the good money that I have not already lost on my pension, investments, savings !!
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Comments

  • You may be guaranteed £50,000 but if the £50,000 only buys in the future what £25,000 would buy you today what then. :eek:
    ...............................I have put my clock back....... Kcolc ym
  • gozomark
    gozomark Posts: 2,069 Forumite
    how do you intend insuring against this risk ?
  • Que sera sera was a hit song for Doris Day I think many moons ago.

    It translates as

    Whatever will be will be.

    We do not know what the future holds.

    A clairvoyance and Tarot reading shop in Hornchurch has just closed down due to unforseeable circumstances.

    So what hope is there for us of knowing what to do next?
    ...............................I have put my clock back....... Kcolc ym
  • Reaper
    Reaper Posts: 7,343 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Name Dropper Photogenic
    Sometimes I think Robert is in a thread of his own. All the time for that matter.

    As to the original question if the FSA backed by the government can't aford to pay your compensation then it means the whole financial system has collapsed including whichever insurance company you used.

    So the short answer is no, don't bother as it won't happen and they won't pay out even if it did.
  • Unsure how I would or could insure. Think the feedback sums it up....if the country goes bust then what value would there be on insurance anyway ! I'm just tuck the "few bob" that I have left under the matress !
  • http://www.tv.com/spongebob-squarepants/the-lost-mattress---krabs-vs.-plankton/episode/419954/summary.html
    SpongeBob SquarePants: The Lost Mattress


    The Lost Mattress:
    Mr. Krabs complains that his back hurts, so SpongeBob and Patrick buy a new mattress and Squidward tries to take credit for it. They give the new mattress to Mr. Krabs, but Mr. Krabs put his money in his old mattress, which SpongeBob, Patrick, and Squidward must find while Mr. Krabs is at the hospital.
    Mortgage Start jun 2007 £88500 Outstanding Balance £51000
    Overpayments 2007 Nil 2008 £1040 2009 £7853 2010 £10000 2011 aiming for £18000 (6k so far)
    The Early Bird Gets the Worm, but the Second Mouse Gets the Cheese!!
  • Primrose
    Primrose Posts: 10,693 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper I've been Money Tipped!
    I remember when my dear old Dad retired back around 1967, he tried to get insurance cover in the event that the supplier of his pension annuity went bust. He'd lived through the 1930's depression, had to take a salary cut then, and it made him very suspicious of banks, etc. He tried about 12 different insurance companies and nobody would give him a quote. They all effectively laughed at him and said it would never happen. (And we did too). So he had to take a chance, but he split his life savings up and opened lots of building society accounts with £500 in each of them. I bet whever he is now and looking down, he's saying "It may have happened a bit later than I thought, but I told you so".
  • Your father was obviously a very astute and wise man !!
  • opinions4u
    opinions4u Posts: 19,411 Forumite
    nmorriso wrote: »
    I understand that the FSA will guarantee your savings up to an amount of £50K per financial institution (£100K for joint named account)
    No. The FSCS (Financial Services Compensation Scheme) is what I believe you are referring to, not the FSA.
    but recollect comments that it is not sufficiently funded to honour this in the event that a Bank (or our country) goes "bust".
    Correct. It has borrowed £14bn from HM Government to pay the cost of Bradford & Bingley's collapse. If the nation goes bankrupt, we're all doomed anyway.
    Given some of the articles and scaremongering around the state of our nation, I am seriously considering insuring against this possibility!
    The safest form of insurance would be emigrating. But where to that is safer?
    Has anyone considered this, or am I throwing away the good money that I have not already lost on my pension, investments, savings !!
    In the case of you needing to claim against any insurer for this outcome, it is more than likely that the insurer would already have collapsed. Hence you won't find one willing to take the risk.

    The good news is that insurers have their own compensation scheme.

    The bad news is that in these circumstances that would also have collapsed under the weight of claims.

    Moving on, can anybody explain to me how the UK National Insurance Scheme differs from Madoff's Ponzi scheme?
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