Best Icesave-a-like?

Paul_Herring

blizeH wrote: »

Pretty sure I'll be fine, but just curious as to just how risky having all of my money in Icesave will be? I'm guessing the chances of me losing any are very slim to none?

If your total with IceSave is less than £35,000, totally safe. Over that, and you really need to read http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/savings/safe-savings

shown73

Doesn't get much press, but you could check out the Post Office online account. There are the odd conditions,but nothing onerous, and you have the advantage of being able to access via any post office, as well as all the usual routes. You get a card with it also...

threestephitch

isofa wrote: »

Personally I wouldn't worry about the FSA limit, more chance of seeing a flying pig than Landsbanki (owners of Icesave) going under, but each to their own risk profile.

You might want to read this read re FirstSave... sounds good:
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=688527

Very very dangerous advice. Do you know anything about CDS (Credit Default Swap) Margins? Do you know that Landsbanki currently has a worrying CDS margin? Do you know what that means?

I am alarmed at the "chase the rate" mentality on this site. Banks CAN go bust. Despite what Martin has written Northern Rock is BUST - no other way to describe it ( and I might add it isn't really a proper Bank - it's a finance company or a mortgage lender). The Government cannot afford to support every other potential Northern Rock out there. Like it or not you each have about £2k invested in N Rock at the moment because that is the extent of the taxpayers support.

Do your research. Put your money with a bank that pays above inflation, BUT THAT IS SAFE. Less exciting but safer.

Which Banks are safe? I know, but do you? Or are you all going to "chase the rate" like a bunch of lemmings?

I'll sit back and watch you while you do, but in the meantime I will put my money in a proper Bank at a less exciting but nevertheless safe rate.

Paul_Herring

threestephitch wrote: »

Very very dangerous advice. Do you know anything about CDS (Credit Default Swap) Margins? Do you know that Landsbanki currently has a worrying CDS margin? Do you know what that means?

It means in your first three posts to this site, you've had nothing constructive to say, and in two of them you've denigrated other users of this site.

It also means you're talking a lot of rubbish:

http://www.google.co.uk/search?num=100&q=(%22credit+default+swap+margin%22+|+%22CDS+margin%22)+Landsbanki

Google wrote:

Did you mean: ("credit default swap margin" | "CSS margin") Landsbanki


No standard web pages containing all your search terms were found.

Your search - ("credit default swap margin" | "CDS margin") Landsbanki - did not match any documents.

Suggestions:

• Make sure all words are spelled correctly.
• Try different keywords.
• Try more general keywords.
• Try fewer keywords.

Perhaps you'd like to attach some citations to your next post? :rolleyes:

Edit: Google has now picked up on this thread, and now this thread is listed on the above search. Just this thread.

chris1

threestephitch wrote: »

Do your research. Put your money with a bank that pays above inflation, BUT THAT IS SAFE. Less exciting but safer.

Which Banks are safe? I know, but do you? Or are you all going to "chase the rate" like a bunch of lemmings?

I'll sit back and watch you while you do, but in the meantime I will put my money in a proper Bank at a less exciting but nevertheless safe rate.

Like where?

Surely anything under the £35K limit is safe?

Paul_Herring

chris1 wrote: »

Like where?

Probably the bank he works for. His other post was moaning over the MSE song.

caliston

I didn't know, so I googled.

Credit derivatives - Credit Default Swap = "agreement whereby one party makes a series of payments to another in return for compensation in the event of a bond default"

Aha, I think somebody has been reading Tuesday's Moneyweek article.

I can understand the concerns - if I set up MafiaSave paying 10%, it's obviously not sustainable. If anything goes wrong I'll be relying on the FSCS to bail out my depositors. All I have to do is convince the FSA that my business is a going concern - as we saw with Northern Rock this isn't impossible. In other words, market pressures encourage banks to take risks. But it's the non-risk-taking banks (subscribers to the FSCS) who have to mop up the mess afterwards.

I'm also a bit worried by the political nature of the FSCS. The government has previously turned around and bitten people who were locked in a particular financial product by changing the market conditions (the pensions 'raid'). So if MafiaSave goes bust, will the government say 'it was obviously a scam, we won't bail them out'? If MafiaSave doesn't have huge numbers of depositors (unlike, say, Barclays), perhaps the political fallout wouldn't be so bad?

Paul_Herring

caliston wrote: »

Aha, I think somebody has been reading Tuesday's Moneyweek article.

Thanks for that.

That reads like something out of the Daily Mail. Inaccurate and full of hyperbole:

But if they’re Icelandic, then be afraid; these banks are starting to be priced for bankruptcy risk and it’s not clear what protection UK savers might have with these foreign accounts.

(emphasis mine) It's regulated by the FSA. It has the standard #35K protection.

And I'd love to know where the author is acquiring his figures from.

caliston

Given their recommendation is a Lloyds account that they say pays 5.75% for above £100,000 I think they're targeting those people who have more than £35K.

It says:

Such fears obviously only apply to people with very large sums because the system insures savers up to a certain amount (£35,000). Still, I don’t think you want to have your life savings in a bank that the bond market views with such suspicion. The same goes for Bradford & Bingley.

Which sounds fair enough to me, especially as many people's 'life savings' are a lot more than £35K. Even if MafiaSave was protected by the FSCS if it collapsed it'd be a pain to have to go through the FSCS procedure to get your <£35K deposit back, and that would hardly be instant access.

I suppose if you won the lottery it'd be a pain to have to open dozens of accounts to keep within the FSCS limit in which case you'd have to worry about such risks (but it's a pain I'm willing to bear, if anyone has a winning lottery ticket handy).

Apart from that, if we neglect the FSCS guarantee bit, was there anything you disagreed with in the article? Just interested in hearing what people who have more experience than me think.

threestephitch

Paul_Herring wrote: »

It means in your first three posts to this site, you've had nothing constructive to say, and in two of them you've denigrated other users of this site.

It also means you're talking a lot of rubbish:

http://www.google.co.uk/search?num=100&q=(%22credit+default+swap+margin%22+|+%22CDS+margin%22)+Landsbanki


Perhaps you'd like to attach some citations to your next post? :rolleyes:

Edit: Google has now picked up on this thread, and now this thread is listed on the above search. Just this thread.

I can only apologise if you think I denigrate people - I don't mean to. When you get to my age you perhaps become less tolerant and shoot from the hip. I do think the bank charges song is a naff idea so I said so. I don't work for a bank and hadn't read the Money Week article but I do know what I'm talking about.

You've got to give me credit for one thing...some people have now looked behind the rate, done a bit of research and perhaps understand now that there are risks to depositing your hard earned cash with a bank (or a "not really a bank" (!) bank).

Foreign banks willingly taking our cash are a relatively new thing. But how much real control do we exercise over them? In the 70's a number of regional banks in the states went bust but their protection system is now different over there. The basic point is that our system is untested. There is not a pot of cash lying there totaling £30bn (the level of N Rock retail deposits before recent events) to just pay depositors back. It's the taxpayers that pay. Just be careful. DONT CHASE THE RATE.