Is Santander Safe ?

Starship9

How safe is Santander ?

I'd got around £50K tied up in that bank - I think I'm covered by the UK's protection scheme though.

Should I be worried at the moment :question:

Thanks.

anselld

Starship9 wrote: »

How safe is Santander ?

I'd got around £50K tied up in that bank - I think I'm covered by the UK's protection scheme though.

Should I be worried at the moment :question:

Thanks.

You are safe as far as deposit protection is concerned. You are more likely to lose your money through sheer incompetence. Dont expect any customer service if something goes wrong.

Swipe

Gromitt

Starship9 wrote: »

How safe is Santander ?

The bank itself is pretty sturdy, however the staff are still completely useless, so as long as you don't ask them for anything you should be ok.

Personally, I don't see them worth the incompetence. You can get good deals elsewhere.

rb10

As far as stability, and the likelihood of you losing your money, consider Santander UK to be fully independent of the Spanish bank.

Santander in the UK seems to be strong and profitable at the moment. In terms of the Euro-zone, I believe that they have less exposure to the worst countries than Barclays, RBS and LBG.

In any case, you are protected up to £85k that you have with Santander.

Guys_Dad

I have no experience of a large bank going down the pan personally and am sure the money is protected under the govt scheme.

However, how long would it take to get your hands on your savings if they did go to the wall?

Have Santander got savings rates that really knock the spots off the competition? On your investment, how much extra per annum would you get by staying with them?

I attended a meeting last month where some big boys from the city were a bit worried and took a hedging strategy to deal with just such an eventuality. I took a lead from them and removed all but my 1 year cash ISA from Santander and put it with Nationwide.

Frankly, I prefer not to risk my £50k further than necessary. May be cowardly or even panicky, but it's my hard earned cash and I can just about match the interest elsewhere that isn't owned by a Spanish bank.

gadgetmind

Starship9 wrote: »

I'd got around £50K tied up in that bank - I think I'm covered by the UK's protection scheme though.

If it's in a deposit account, then you're covered up to £85 per person or twice that for a joint account.

If you hold Santander shares or bonds, all bets are off!

MarcoM

Hi,

I understand your concern however if a bank like Santander were to collapse, others would too in a domino effect. If more banks failed I doubt any government would be able to support whatever protection scheme they may have in place.

Also think of the run on other banks if someone like Santander collapsed, remember the queues at NR in 2007. People would be rushing to withdraw their money just in case and imho you will probably find that the government would enforce a closure of all branches / cashmachines / webites to avoid people emptying their savings accounts like in Argentina in 2002.

Sounds dramatic but all I am saying is that imho you might as well leave things as they are, doing something else would not save you in the event of a collapse of the banking system as we know it.

swift1_2

This is why I've started to take substantial cash out of my bank and store it a safe deposit box. I maybe losing out on interest and inflation. But at least my capital is safe. I'll wait till this credit crisis blows over or we are out of the woods.

When the crap hits the fan, the man on the street is going to be the last one to know - and like you say the banks won't give you your money as they've lent it out 20 times over!

Alistair Darling himself now says that they were hours away from closing the cash machines in 2008! - He didn't tell us that at the time! We are now back in the same situation only much much worse!

You really think the FSCS will be able to give everyone their money back!

Swipe

Guys_Dad wrote: »

I took a lead from them and removed all but my 1 year cash ISA from Santander and put it with Nationwide.

I think you'll find that Nationwide has a higher risk of default than the UK operation of Santander.

gadgetmind

swift1 wrote: »

But at least my capital is safe. I'll wait till this credit crisis blows over or we are out of the woods.

I'm going the other way, and I'm moving cash into equities.

My risks are short term and yours medium/long term, but there are always risks.