Should I close my Northern Rock Account?

paddy2

melbury wrote: »

What happens if, like me, you have a fixed rate bond with a set expiry date - in my case this is 1st November. I obviously cannot withdraw my funds before that time, but what will the situation be in some six weeks? Really quite worried, also have more than 35K invested with them so don't want to lose a big chunk of my savings.

:T I cashed my Northern Rock bond fixed rate bond in yesterday,but had to pay a 90 day loss of interest penalty on the ammount withdrawn.All accounts have different terms annd conditions,which are written on the back of the bond.Mine was due to mature on 1st.Feb.2008.I thought to be on the safe side,I would cash it in.They gave me the cheque with no broblems.Make sure if you go to withdraw yours you have your passport,or driving licence with you,and of course the bond,and arrive in the branch at least an hour before opening.I arrived at 8am at Liverpools branch,and I was 13th in the q
They open at 9am.I personnaly would advise you to cash it in.

andy_from_embsay

Why would you advise anyone to do what you've done, Paddy2? You've just lost yourself 90 days interest on a fixed rate bond for no good reason whatsoever - why can people not understand - Northern Rock's INCOME comes from borrowers - borrowers who they already have. Their current liquidity crisis is preventing them from doing new loans to new borrowers - they are perfectly solvent and could happily carry on making a healthy profit for years even if they didn't lend any more. You have done what is imo (and in the opinion of most expert commentators) a silly and needless thing and wasted yourself a significant amount of money (I assume your bond was for substantially more than £35k or else you've been even sillier) - don't try and get others to make the same mistake.

paddy2

andy_from_embsay wrote: »

Why would you advise anyone to do what you've done, Paddy2? You've just lost yourself 90 days interest on a fixed rate bond for no good reason whatsoever - why can people not understand - Northern Rock's INCOME comes from borrowers - borrowers who they already have. Their current liquidity crisis is preventing them from doing new loans to new borrowers - they are perfectly solvent and could happily carry on making a healthy profit for years even if they didn't lend any more. You have done what is imo (and in the opinion of most expert commentators) a silly and needless thing and wasted yourself a significant amount of money (I assume your bond was for substantially more than £35k or else you've been even sillier) - don't try and get others to make the same mistake.

Yes thinking about it you are right.Melbury would be completly covered by the depositors compensation scheme,but if they went bust,he would still lose about £2,800.Mine was considerably more than 30k.

olly300

notatroll wrote: »

“Brought down by its customers. Takeover is imminent. Bidders to put offers on through Merrill Lynch from Monday.”
It is in times like these you absolutely hate media don’t you?
If there is a property crash I can even tell who would be responsible for starting the panic...

You mean the media-

http://observer.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,,2170336,00.html

Housing boom over as UK bank chaos grows

"After the dramatic bail-out of high street bank Northern Rock underlined the impact of the American 'sub-prime' mortgage crisis on Britain's financial sector, Fionnuala Earley, Nationwide's group economist, said she expected house price inflation to slow to around 3 per cent next year."

theredfox_2

One month the house boom continues, the next month or even week it stops. One month or week its growing, the next its crashing. I wish they would stop writing that drivel...what we're considering here is a relatively long term trend, not a brief fluctuation that means nothing.

I agree that with whats happened in the US, a long overdue house-inflation slowdown might just happen. But theres no evidence its started yet, or it will definitely happen, and what newspapers report is just journalistic froth.

Besides which, if the Bank of England administer yet more of their ignorant tinkering that seems almost designed to maintain house price inflation (which is very, very wrong and I'm very tired of it), it won't happen at all.

a66y31

since there has been so much panick and everyone drawing there dosh out..no one is gona trust this bank again...and they will loose business so I think it will go down the pan..I just ave a current bank account with them and thinking of going elsewhere to bank..been meaning to do this for a while..never been happy with northern rock for a long time.

Optimist

For those with joint accounts at the Northern Rock this from the Financial Services Compensation Scheme

http://www.fscs.org.uk/consumer/faqs/deposit_claims_faqs/
1. I have my money in a joint account in a High Street bank. How would FSCS pay compensation if the bank failed?

The compensation limit of £31,700 applies to each depositor for the total of their deposits with an organisation, regardless of how many accounts they hold or whether they are a single or joint account holder. In the case of a joint account FSCS will assume that the money in that account is split equally between account holders, unless evidence shows otherwise.
This means that each account holder in a joint account would be eligible for compensation up to the maximum limit

gt94sss2

The government has just promised to guarantee all existing deposits at Northern Rock

Regards
Sunil

cloudstrife_2

Its about time the Government did something. 4 odd days is a bit late, instead of don't panic this message should have been shouted from the rooftops from day one. The media are much to blame.
We had another busy day with many NR customer's unsure what to do, especially with fixed accounts. Despite my plea not to panic a chap went of to consider if he was worse off with the penalty or the financial insurances! Many others have been to us to transfer ISAs not caring about penalties, they just want the money.
For our smallish branch we fully booked pretty much the whole week ahead, mainly with NR customers wanting to open new savings accounts, by mid afternoon today!
PS I am a Halifax front-line worker, am not part of NR!
Hats of again for the front line staff of NR in branches and call centres, keep up the good work!

James

nickmack

gt94sss2 wrote: »

The government has just promised to guarantee all existing deposits at Northern Rock

Yet still they queue outside the branches.

The press have created a panic out of a non-story and the customers have been left confused.

I remember seeing one woman on the news on Saturday, who said she was there to take her money out. She was aware there was no risk of losing her money, but she still chose to do so presumably because of the scaremongering.

She also admitted the queue was so long, there was virtually no chance of her getting into the bank before it closed. But she still waited there.

Shows the power the press can have to create a panic when there's not much else news around.