Are your savings safe? article discussion

fatherted9999

Hello.

I think it is pretty clear cut that anything up to £50K in a savings account is pretty safe.

I have an offset mortgage with Abbey with just over £40K in my offset savings account. Are these kind of savings insured by the goverment?

What would happen to me if my bank went under in relation to my mortgage and savings?? Would it be wiser/safer to pay off some of the balance of the morgage with these savings and try and borrow back if I need to?

Many thanks.

ma5k

All the reassurance I have seen is based around the FSCS compensation scheme. Even if it could cope in term of resourses, just how well would it perform in practice?...

For example; take someone who has managed to scrape together 6 months mortgage payments to cover against redundency & then finds themselves out of work and unable to access their savings in a crashed bank. Just how many hoops will they have to jump through and what kind of timescale until their claim might be processed & compensation paid? ...chances are their home would have been reposessed long before they got any money.

I sincerely believe this whole fear driven situation has got out of hand, but is it not prudent if we are relying on protection to question the likely performance of that protection?!

lotty13

Bit of advice please.

We live in France and have a 1 year fixed rate bond in an Isle of Man Account (Halifax International). This only covers us for the £15000 each. As we have a bit more than that in there due to a house sale we are extremely worried. We cannot get an account in the UK due to not being resident and I don't think we can close our account under 6 months - took out in July! What do you experts think of the likelihood of Halifax (Now Lloyds TSB) going bust or should we be really worried. As French residents would we be covered by them in anyway (clutching at straws)

occamsrazor

lotty13 wrote: »

Bit of advice please.

We live in France and have a 1 year fixed rate bond in an Isle of Man Account (Halifax International). This only covers us for the £15000 each. As we have a bit more than that in there due to a house sale we are extremely worried. We cannot get an account in the UK due to not being resident and I don't think we can close our account under 6 months - took out in July! What do you experts think of the likelihood of Halifax (Now Lloyds TSB) going bust or should we be really worried. As French residents would we be covered by them in anyway (clutching at straws)

You're right about the Isle of Man's limited compensation scheme, but there is news today that it may be extended to £50,000 - see lower down on this thread:

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=1203227

If you're not concerned about a bit lower interest rates and really want to move some of it to a UK-based account, these two specifically say they offer accounts to non-residents:

http://www.halifax.co.uk/savings/nonukcustomerrates.asp
http://www.barclays.com/international/index.html

Having said that and noting I am not an expert, LloydsTSB is not in bad shape from what I've read and I do not think you have much to worry about leaving your money where it is.

miaviv

lotty13 wrote: »

Bit of advice please.

We live in France and have a 1 year fixed rate bond in an Isle of Man Account (Halifax International). This only covers us for the £15000 each. As we have a bit more than that in there due to a house sale we are extremely worried. We cannot get an account in the UK due to not being resident and I don't think we can close our account under 6 months - took out in July! What do you experts think of the likelihood of Halifax (Now Lloyds TSB) going bust or should we be really worried. As French residents would we be covered by them in anyway (clutching at straws)

I'm in a similar position to you - Brit, French resident, money from house sale in Isle of Man HBOS group bank and very worried !

It makes no difference where you live with regards to compensation, it is where your bank is and what the law is in this country.

As someone else has mentioned, the IOM govt are thinking of increasing the protection to £50K but if you are like me, this doesn't cover the money that you have in your account then it still doesn't put your mind at ease.

I am putting my faith in the experts that say that the situation has been blown out of proportion by traders and that the banks we are interested in (Halifax in your case, Bank of Scotland in mine) are perfectly safe and solvent. I am also crossing my fingers that the Lloyds TSB merger goes ahead as planned as I presume this will make the bank safer.

The planned announcement of a bailout on Wed morning should help the situation but as far as I'm concerned we need to just ride out the current crisis in the hope that things calm down soon. My account matures in less than 2 weeks and I'm not sure what to do with the money at this time, whether to leave it where it is or move it to another bank, but which one is safer than mine ? All I know is that the whole worry is giving me too many sleepless nights and I just wish I'd kept the whole lot in Euros in a French bank because they are guaranteeing the lot now !

caeast

should my bank fail, between filing a claim and receiving my money will interest continue to accrue, providing that the total does not exceed the 50K limit? many thanks for any help on this.

silvercar

fatherted9999 wrote: »

Hello.

I think it is pretty clear cut that anything up to £50K in a savings account is pretty safe.

I have an offset mortgage with Abbey with just over £40K in my offset savings account. Are these kind of savings insured by the goverment?

What would happen to me if my bank went under in relation to my mortgage and savings?? Would it be wiser/safer to pay off some of the balance of the morgage with these savings and try and borrow back if I need to?

Many thanks.

You would end up with a mortgage balance reduced by the amount of your savings. No worries there, particularly as your savings are under 50k.

bellaonline79

Hello

I have a couple of questions I can't seem to find answers to on the site...

I have quite a large amount of inheritance money saved in a fixed-term deposit account with Kaupthing. I was planning to leave it there until it matures next March, and then use it to pay off some of my mortgage when my mortgage becomes due for renewal in May. (I couldn't pay it off straight away because my mortgage deal heavily penalises overpayments).

My questions are these...
1. I know that my money is covered by the compensation scheme so if the bank goes bust I will get it back. However, what is not clear is what happens to the interest I am owed. As it is a fixed term deposit I have not accrued any interest, but when the fund matures in March I will be owed over £1000. Would I get that back too or just the original amount?

2. If the bank did go bust, and I had to wait to get my money back, would I be likely to get it back before it's time for me to re-mortgage?

I hope you can help!
Thanks
Bella

Sammyfaye

We have our savings in the above mentioned fund, recommended by financial advisor at Barclays. Minimum Risk.
Only had them since Jan 2008 and already since the trouble the value has dropped, now worth about £8,000 less than we put in. This was a long term investment and should we pull out now we would also get a large financial penalty in addition to the above loss.
We have dicided to take no action, but what happens if Legal & General goes bust. Obviously shares go up and down, this we accept.:rolleyes:

nickc84

Is Abbey "safe" even though its spanish owned? Is it still a UK bank?