Which savings account for my money...

mleonard79

wannabemedic wrote: »

Michelle - thanks so much for your reply I appreciate your time :beer: OK so firstly, what I'd do is put in all available funds into the A&L Direct Saver. I know for certain I won't need access for a few months.

Hi wannabemedic,

If that's the case then it's fine to put it in the A&L account. Just so long as you're aware of the interest loss pitfalls and know how to deal with them you should be fine.

One thing I'm a little concerned about is ICICI being a foreign bank, I know they're covered by the FSA scheme which covers 100% of your losses within £2k but above 2K you'd lose if they did go down. Are these legitimate concerns? If not then I'd be happy to just open an account there.

ICICI and Icesave are both regulated by the FSA and signed up to the banking code. Yes you are only covered for 100% of the first £2K under the FSA regulations but don't forget you are then also covered for 90% of the next £33000 as well. This is true of all institutions though and these banks seem very stable to me so you are risking very little.

Provided they don't pull an ING on us i.e. start with nice high rates then drop down to screw people who aren't motivated enough to move the money away.

Well you can't be sure any bank won't end up doing this but both ICICI and Icesave have been going along at good rates for a while now and both have guarantees in place for some time to come as Martin points out in his savings article:

ICICI promises to stay at least 0.25% higher than the Bank Base rate until the end of 2007, yet Icesave trumps it with a massive assurance to be at least 0.25% above the Bank of England base rate until Oct 2009 and then at least match it until October 2011, making it clear rate winner for anyone not intending to shift from account to account, but wanting a long term high rate.

I'd rather do a last minute transfer into an isa when I'm sure it's a use it or lose it situation regarding the allowance.

That's sensible as there's no point using it if you'll need to take the money out so soon yet might be able to use it for keeps later in the year. Good luck with sorting it all out.

Regards

Michelle