over £50,000 limit!

Cacran

OMG, I have just realised that I have money in Halifax and money in BM. Looking at the chart it seems they are linked. Would I lose my money if just one of these banks went bust or would it need to be both?

Lokolo_2

A bit confusing this one, both banks come under the same £50k protection, so if you have say £30k in one and £25k in another, then both would have to go bankrupt for you to actually lose anything, you would lose £5k in this example.

Its easy to transfer your savings though, unless you are on a fixed term account you can just move your money to another instituiton to avoid any risk. I'd say though its fairly unlikely that both would go bust, but its always better to be safe than sorry :j

opinions4u

Cacran wrote: »

OMG, I have just realised that I have money in Halifax and money in BM. Looking at the chart it seems they are linked. Would I lose my money if just one of these banks went bust or would it need to be both?

First of all, BM and Halifax both come under the Bank of Scotland banking licence along with Intelligent Finance.

Secondly, all these brands belong to the Lloyds Banking Group. You would need LBG to go bust for your savings to be at risk. You couldn't have Halifax going bust on its own without Lloyds TSB, Birmingham Midshires, Cheltenham & Gloucester, Bank of Scotland, Scottish Widows Bank etc going with it. (It might be technically possible to liquidate one banking licence while retaining another, but regulatory and government intervention would take place long before this happened).

Thirdly, Lloyds Banking Group is 41% owned by HM Government. In other words, you would need a bank who's major shareholder is the state to go under. It would be political suicide for a government to allow that to happen - they would simply nationalise the bank (or sell it off to other banks). If the government couldn't afford to do this, then you will have much more to worry about than your savings.

Fourthly, the Government has made good losses of British savers in the Icelandic banks, rescued Northern Rock to protect savers, bailed out Bradford & Bingley savers etc. etc. While there may have been a political change at the top, there is little doubt in my mind that the new men in charge would do their utmost to retain confidence in the banking system too.

So, in summary, stop worrying.

If you do wish to move money around, check out sites like www.moneyfacts.co.uk/savings to identify some of the better rates available.

Essex123

Cacran wrote: »

OMG, I have just realised that I have money in Halifax and money in BM. Looking at the chart it seems they are linked. Would I lose my money if just one of these banks went bust or would it need to be both?

I don't think its possible for one of these to go bust without the other one also going bust. This is because both BM and Halifax are trading names of the same bank - Bank of Scotland plc - and so deposits with either brand would have the same status.

Personally, I have held a six figure sum with Halifax in the fairly recent past, and have not been unduely concerned for many of the reasons opinions4u states. However if you're at all worried, then I would suggest thinking about reducing your combined balance between all BoS brands down to £50k (or just under, to keep account of accrued interest).

Cacran

I will try to stop worrying. I took out a 4 years fixed interest one with BM about a month ago. For some stupid reason, I failed to notice that it was part of the Halifax Group. I am well over the limit.I will not be able to remove any from BM, so will have to get my Halifax capital down. It is getting hard finding banks to transfer to unless I try some of the strange ones, ones that I have never heard of before. I was interested in Ing /Direct until I saw it was a Dutch bank.
I think I would have less to worry about if I was skint!!!! ( Maybe not!!!)

luvpump

Cacran wrote: »

OMG, I have just realised that I have money in Halifax and money in BM. Looking at the chart it seems they are linked. Would I lose my money if just one of these banks went bust or would it need to be both?

nothing to worry about , the idea that the government would allow investors like you to lose out is ZERO ..