Is £85000 saVing safe?

Keith_June

I have £86000 saved in a bank account earning interest. If the bank goes under will £85000 still be protected and I would only lose £1000? Or would I lose the whole £86000 because it’s over the guarantee limit?

Alter_ego

£85,000 is definitely safe, The interest could be as well. Interest was saved when Iceland bank went under. But that was Gordon Brown.

pramsay13

You wouldn't lose it all just because you have over the protected limit.

eskbanker

Keith_June said:

I have £86000 saved in a bank account earning interest. If the bank goes under will £85000 still be protected and I would only lose £1000? Or would I lose the whole £86000 because it’s over the guarantee limit?

As above, £85K is safe, but you could obviously split that money across multiple institutions to protect it all.

However, the broader question is whether or not it's sensible to leave that amount in cash deposit form, where it's highly likely to be losing real-terms value to inflation.  Have you carefully considered whether that's the best approach, when compared with prudent investment of at least some of it in order to minimise such value loss?

jsmith9

That is an excellent suggestion but would love to know what is a 'prudent investment' as I also would move some of my savings (currently getting a massive 0.5%) into it!

eskbanker

jsmith9 said:

That is an excellent suggestion but would love to know what is a 'prudent investment' as I also would move some of my savings (currently getting a massive 0.5%) into it!

It depends on your circumstances, but for money that isn't likely to be needed over the short to medium term (<5 years, say) then putting it to work in tax-efficient and globally-diversified investments is usually considered sensible, provided you retain enough readily-accessible cash in reasonably liquid form to cater for emergencies and known requirements.

The first port of call for many is to invest in 'buy-and-forget' low-cost low-maintenance global multi-asset funds within a S&S ISA, or perhaps a SIPP if it's appropriate to commit to lack of access until 55+.