Best Icesave-a-like?

blizeH

Shoot, just been reading that article on the HousePriceCrash forum and maybe it's about time I move some of my funds (anything over £35k at least) out of Icesave ASAP - still absolutely no idea where to put it, but thanks for the heads up.

PBozzo

Guys, I too read the MoneyWeek article. Never heard of CDSs before so I did a bit of reading. I was also concerned by the line '....it's not clear what protection UK savers [in Icesave] might have with these foreign accounts.'

Icesave account holders are not protected by the FSCS in the same way as UK bank customers. The first €20,887 is covered by the Icelandic Deposit Guarantees and Investor-Compensation Scheme. Any balance above €20,887 and up to £35,000 is covered by the FSCS scheme. Clearly there is an element of risk associated with the currency swap and the untangling process is likely to be a little more onerous. Nonetheless, there is significant protection available.

It's all available to read at http://www.icesave.co.uk/financial-protection.html.

Aegis

PBozzo wrote: »

Guys, I too read the MoneyWeek article. Never heard of CDSs before so I did a bit of reading. I was also concerned by the line '....it's not clear what protection UK savers [in Icesave] might have with these foreign accounts.'

Icesave account holders are not protected by the FSCS in the same way as UK bank customers. The first €20,887 is covered by the Icelandic Deposit Guarantees and Investor-Compensation Scheme. Any balance above €20,887 and up to £35,000 is covered by the FSCS scheme. Clearly there is an element of risk associated with the currency swap and the untangling process is likely to be a little more onerous. Nonetheless, there is significant protection available.

It's all available to read at http://www.icesave.co.uk/financial-protection.html.

I read that differently to you. I read that the balance is protected up to €20887 by the Iclandic guarantee scheme AND up to £35000 by the FSCS. i.e. if for some reason the Icelandic scheme is unable or unwilling to pay out, the account is still covered by the FSCS to the full amount.

I got this impression from the phrase: "Payments under this scheme are limited to 100% of the first £35,000 of all your deposits with us, less any payments made under the Icelandic scheme"

blizeH

Cheers again for the info guys - really not sure what to do now.

I'm going to ,at the very least move some money out of Icesave so I'm below that £35k limit. Question is, do I move all out of it or just some? Even then I have no idea where to go to, I don't trust ICICI or FirstSave, and have heard bad things about B&B - never even heard of Principality BS.

Arggghh!

Reestit_Mutton

Principality BS is a Building Society so

(1) it has the same FSCS depositor protection as any regulated UK bank

(2) as a BS its regulations are more onerous than a bank's - it has to obtain a minimum of 50% of the funds it lends from retail depositors. In reality, most BS's choose to operate at around the 70-75% level.

Infact, the limit on fund raising was one of the major reasons why so many BSs demutualised in the late 1990s - it's no coincidence that the 3 UK banks that rely the most (in terms of the total percentage of their mortgage books) on wholesale market funds are all former building societies that demutualised in the 1990s (Northern Rock, Alliance & Leicester & B&B - all of which obtain far less than 50% of their money from depositors). HBoS is also very high up on that list (a marriage of Halifax - a former Building Society - with Bank of Scotland).

Anyway...if the money were mine to invest, I wouldn't have any concerns about depositing it with a building society as the restrictions on their business make them far less risky places to invest than any non-BS.

RM

blizeH

Nice one, thank you - I'll take a good look into it when I get home, my main wishes for an account are:
1) Reasonable interest rate and is secure
2) Easy to access funds, with everything available via an online interface

If it meets point #2 then I'll go for it

blizeH

Any opinions on the Sainsburys/Asda accounts?

http://www.asdafinance.com/internet-savings.html
http://www.sainsburysbank.co.uk/savings/sav_internetsaver_is_skip.shtml

blizeH

Nevermind, just took a good look at the Principality BS account and opened one. Thanks again guys (Reesit in particular!)

Reestit_Mutton

No problem blizeH - infact, having been considering it for a while I've just opened one of those up for a large chunk of my mother's internet-based savings...you could literally say that I'm prepared to put my (mother's) money where my mouth is.
<grin />

RM

daveoc22

Reestit_Mutton wrote: »

No problem blizeH - infact, having been considering it for a while I've just opened one of those up for a large chunk of my mother's internet-based savings...you could literally say that I'm prepared to put my (mother's) money where my mouth is.
<grin />

RM

I'm on the point of posting my opening cheque to Icesave but in view of the weekend comments i'm looking around for options.

I saw your comments about Principality, looked at Moneyfacts and saw mention of a one year bond at 6.50% so went to the Principalty site to take a look but there is no mention of it.

Was it this that you were talking about?

dave