Any financial experts around? WWYD Icesave savings account (Kaupthing)

[ohdearwhatamess]

I'm a little concerned about my savings in an Icesave account in light of the apparent collapse of the Icelandic economy.

Am I right in thinking that the first £15000 is protected by the Icelandic Govt., and the rest (up to £35000) by our Govt? If the bank does go under what are the procedures for recouping money? Is it worth forgoing interest for the security of being able to access the money easily?

Should I transfer all the money now into our normal joint bank account then try to set up another account (in my name only as a non tax payer) asap?

kaupthung has just been downgraded from an A safety to BB whatever that means.I would shift it

btw i am not an expert but was going to move some savings to kaup and was advised against it x

You're right in that Kaup 'tops up' into the UK Financial Services Compensation Scheme, so any deposits up to £35k are safe (not sure if this will go up to £50k). If you have more, you might want to think about moving it.

More info here

Kaupthing Bank hf (FSA No. 222968 / approved February 2008).
Please note: Although Kaupthing Bank hf has topped up into FSCS, the bank currently operates under the full FSA authorisation status granted to Kaupthing Singer & Friedlander Limited (a UK registered company), which means its depositors are fully protected by FSCS up to £35,000.

Kaupthing doesn't own Icesave, they're owned by Landsbanki, but they're looking ropey too.

Personally I'm thinking of moving our Icesave money but I'm not panicking and will look around for a good deal first.

Yes, you're right. I was being dim. I saw today's headlines, panicked and skim read the article.

Have cancelled monthly direct debit into the account anyway.

Don't know whether it's an ISA you've got or normal savings, but bear in mind that you can't withdraw an ISA into your current account and put it into another ISA, you need to do a direct swap between ISAs (assuming you've invested the yearly maximum already)

I shifted the vast majority of my balance with Kaupthing this week - but mainly because I need access to it in the next few weeks and didn't want to risk possibly having to wait months (?) for some untried and untested compensation scheme.
Grappled with my conscience for, oh, moments, as to whether I might be contributing to accelerating the possibility of a run on the bank . But hell, it's my money, and I don't suppose many of those responsible for this mess would be altruistic about it.

Normal savings, not ISA.

Have already invested yearly maximum in ISAs.

That's the thing. I don't plan to spend the money, but I want to be able to (at fairly short notice) if something unexpected crops up.

Then I would have it in a UK bank as so far the government hasn't let any UK banks go under, so no need to be involved in any lengthy claims process (hopefully)

imho - irish bank is the way to go - as fully protected

The thing is though that as long as you keep within the (soon to be) £50K UK limit at any one institution then you should also be fine here and personally I would rather be claiming compensation in this country just for logistical reasons.

I can't seem to find any clear informaion on how the compensation process would actually work (I guess because it isn't tried and tested), whether here, in Iceland, in Ireland, or wherever.

I don't doubt that the money would be safe, but the issue is how long it would take to access it.

This money is part of our emergency pot if dh were to lose his job.

BTW I think Nationwide is probably very safe for some of the reasons outlined here

Dh took advice today and I have transferred most of the money out (will do rest tomorrow or Monday when a pending transfer clears). Perhaps a little hasty, but better safe than sorry.

Need to find an alternative account asap.

Nationwide is looking a good safe bet.

I have mine in nationwide and am hoping its a good bet.

I asked DH about this today
He seems happy for us to leave money there

This was the lead topic on Moneybox on Radio 4 this morning. They interviewed the head of Icesave, who said Yes of course it's safe to leave your money in there (surprise, surprise).

I was quite shocked however to find out that in the event of the bank failing, I would have to claim the first 20,000 Euros from the Icelandic Government, and the FSA would only then step in to top that up, up to a maximum of £35,000. I don't really want to be making a claim against a foreign government, so have just withdrawn my money.

well if you wanted the icesave money I hope you got it out already

Icelands system seems to be in chaos according to working lunch today.I would take it out

Took out vast bulk on Sunday (which has vanished into cyberspace somewhere). Can't get at the last £3K.

They only stopped withdrawals and deposits today si the money you have already shifted will be in the system somewhere.have you deposited it to a uk bank?

Apparently anyone with up to £50K will be compensated, by a mixture of the Icelandic Government and the FSA. It may take months though, and I'm not sure about how solvent the Icelandic Govt is.

I didn't get my money out in time - they blocked my requests yesterday and froze my account this morning.

This is the first bank to require application to remove funds isn't it?

Iceland has a reciprocal agreement with the other three Scandanvian countries, so it should be OK.

According to EU law then compensation should be paid within three months if/once Landsbanki is declared insolvent.