Does UK economy going down = savings concern

sanfly

Maybe a strange question, but what do people think now that most commentators and the press appear to be saying the UK is heading for hard times financially, what do we do with our savings to protect them......if and when the crash happens?

1) leave them where they are in the highest paying savings account.
2) change it to another currency, if allowed.
3) move to another country and take it all with you.

any other thoughts,or is it not going to be as bad as they say?

tradetime

1.) That presumes that interest rates will stay high, one way around this may be to make best use of fixed rate, fixed term deposits and lock in current interest rates.

2.) This would take you into the realms of currency speculation, to succeed here you would need to know what you were doing?

3.) This would undoubtedly have a relocation cost associated with it, which country would you believe is likely to be immune from a possible global recession.

CannyJock

sanfly wrote: »

what do we do with our savings to protect them......if and when the crash happens?

Rule number 1: Don't panic
Rule number 2: See rule number 1

Call me cynical but a lot of commentators on these things are looking for a good headline. If you're a conspiracy theorist then you'll take it for granted that markets can be manipulated by media moguls and the likes. Markets are driven by uncertainty and fear, savings aren't.

Under current legislation, any account with an amount less than £ 35k is safe. The most I'd do (but haven't!) would be to splitting my savings over multiple accounts.

Apart from that, you'll be fine. From what I can see, there will be a maximum of two more interest rate cuts over the course of this year (anyone else win a pint for predicting the no cut in January but cut in February?). If I'm using my crystal ball, I'd say one will come in June (0.25%) once they realise that the Feb cut hasn't done much to restore confidence and then back-end of the year (0.25%) to boost retail sales in the run up to Christmas.

Aegis

CannyJock wrote: »

Under current legislation, any account with an amount less than £ 35k is safe. The most I'd do (but haven't!) would be to splitting my savings over multiple accounts.

Not quite true, and the "not quite" is very important in this case if you want to stay absolutely safe.

The £35k is an institution limit, not an account limit. I could have £40k with Icesave and get £35k covered, but splitting that into 2 accounts with £20k in each would still only cover £35k of the £40 total.

Dan29

Aegis wrote: »

Not quite true, and the "not quite" is very important in this case if you want to stay absolutely safe.

The £35k is an institution limit, not an account limit. I could have £40k with Icesave and get £35k covered, but splitting that into 2 accounts with £20k in each would still only cover £35k of the £40 total.

And some banks are part of the same company as other banks.

tawse57

It is a lot of angst isn't it. I have just sold a house I inherited from my parents and have most of it with the Nationwide - above the 35K rule. Now, do I sleep better at night knowing it is in perhaps the safest UK building society? Nope.

I am thinking of moving it into numerous other UK banks and building societies this week, have been looking for about a month now, but between much lower IRs or banks that, according to the Press, are perhaps at more risk from subprime I doubt I will sleep any better at night. I suppose if you have less than 35K in each bank you have at least the Government guarantee but how good is that going to be in any crunch?

I think we are in unchartered waters now as no one seems to know what banks are exposed to and by how much. I doubt some of the banks even know themselves. This credit crunch is a disaster that can only get worse as far as I can make out. Slack lending for mortgages, credit cards and cars in the past 10 years have really screwed things up.