Martins Joned the scare-mongers camp

ManAtHome

The only "sensationalist" bit was that the compo scheme couldn't cover any of the top 25 institutions - could have been "de-sensationalised" if cooper had said something other than "we have a scheme in place... yada yada" without having to check the party line first (presumably why the Treasury had to phone back).

If the almost constant message about being covered up to £35k reduces the queues outside dodgy, or rumouredly-dodgy banks, will have been a good thing.

Mithos

I quite liked it! If only to see Mr Martin in action.

ed123_2

Martin did well to get a verbal agreement from the treasury re lending to the FSCS if they went over their £4 billion limit. However as he states the present scheme does not cover the top 24 banks/building societies in this country with assets up to £96 billion. This begs the question what does the governemnt mean that it will "lend" the excess (of £92 billion) if one of these 24 went down and where would the money come from? Also it would logical follow that ones savings would be safer in a small bank/building society and that the chances of the government "lending" the fscs billions if a foreign bank (such as Kaupang,Icesave, ICICI etc) went down would in my opion be remote.

Jonbvn

This site is fantastic. However the TV program is terrible IMHO. However, I personally find Martin's personality somewhat grates on TV. He just comes across as smarmy. Remember this is only my opinion.

The above notwithstanding, if the TV program makes people think sensibly about their finances, my opinion is irrelevant.

I'll probably be banned for life now!

amcluesent

Get real peeps, their is no "guarantee"; there's a printing press or two at the Royal Mint.

If a bank runs out of cash, Treasury print some more as GBP is a fiat currency. The net outcome of calling on this "guarantee" is that the purchasing power of GBP reduces against other currencies so inflation rises.

The only way to protect yourself in a real banking collapse is to personally keep bullion.

Aegis

amcluesent wrote: »

Get real peeps, their is no "guarantee"; there's a printing press or two at the Royal Mint.

If a bank runs out of cash, Treasury print some more as GBP is a fiat currency. The net outcome of calling on this "guarantee" is that the purchasing power of GBP reduces against other currencies so inflation rises.

The only way to protect yourself in a real banking collapse is to personally keep bullion.

And as we've seen lately, holding bullion is hardly a steady ride!

tradetime

I'm quite surprised anybody actually thought the fscs could actually cover a major bank, it has occurred to me a few times to brng that subject up when people are going on about the safety of keeping your money exclusively in the UK, but I expected it would start a mud slinging match. As for what the government says it will do, and actually does....well I'm not even going there.

reehsetin

agent_orange wrote: »

Just watching Martin on itv at the moment. He's allowed himself to join the scare-mongers camp on the safety of bank accounts.

watching it now, martin: "unlikely" "minuscule risk"

Iconic

MSE_Martin wrote: »

The FSCS lack of funds was a true worry, and to have resolution was great.
Martin

Only saw the end of the programme.

Won't the Government's money run out one day if they have to keep having to sure up all these schemes? Mind you they rob peter to pay paul with pensions so why not do it with everything else!

PasturesNew

Riq wrote: »

That bloke from America with the Bear Stearns shouting, I loved him. He was in Iron Man and I thought he was made up. I'm glad I watched just for that!!

If you liked that, you HAVE to see the video where he's being interviewed about the housing market and he's screaming "it's armageddon out there" from last August.

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=rOVXh4xM-Ww

Short on time? Not interested in the story and just want the rant? Cut straight to 2 minutes in.

If you've no idea what he was ranting about, it was about people in the US that were sold cheap mortgages on "teaser rates", really low, and they never had a chance of being able to afford the mortgage when the teaser rate went up; they were being repossessed in their droves. This was the American sub-prime problem a year ago.

Back to the thread

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I felt the promotion of the programme was scare-mongering, but not any of the content in itself. If it scared some people into listening then that's good. But anybody listening would have realised they're OK.

The only "pity" I thought was that Martin only managed to find a bloke with £120k cash in banks (from buying/selling property for a living). There are a lot of STR people out there, quite normal everyday people, whose pots are £200-300k. While Martin pointed out the man with £120k would need four bank accounts ... somebody with £200k would need seven and somebody with £300k would need nine!

It's a real pain in the bum setting up and managing so many accounts. Each has different ways to apply and verify. All the paperwork. All the username/password/unique answers you have to come up with ... it's a job in itself. And, if you've STR'd, you have to also manage moving all those accounts around safely if you're moving about as you're renting on 6-month ASTs.

It's costing so many banks so much money if we've all got all these spare accounts set up, JUST to protect money in £35k chunks.