Frozen Ice

[gothick]

...of course, one of the bonuses of the web is that it allows you to easily put a large chunk of your savings into an Icelandic savings bank. A Icelandic bank which, ironically, has now had its UK assets frozen by our government, after it collapsed.

I think it could be a while before I get a large chunk of my savings back, if I'm lucky enough to get them back at all. And I was just about to draw out a chunk of money to use for share dealing in this nice volatile stock market we've got...

Meh.

Comments

[gothick-matt.livejournal.com]

Ta, hadn't got around to finding that yet. I guess it makes sense, as they were recommending Icesave quite a lot, dammit.

[shereenb.livejournal.com]

Yeh, the other LJer I mentioned said MSE was one place they'd picked up Icesave recommendations. So it's the least the site can to help those who took up their advice!

[gothick-matt.livejournal.com]

Yes, it wasn't just that they were the original recommender -- it's also that when I carefully looked around about four weeks ago to see whether I might want to take my money out of Icesave, I was reassured by this blog posting of theirs (http://blog.moneysavingexpert.com/2008/04/01/icesave-how-safe-are-your-savings-facts-and-myths/), which carefully points out all the ways in which my savings were safe, even if the bank were to go tits-up, including mentioning the apparently-worthless Icelandic compensation scheme. Maybe if I'd spotted that it was posted on 1st April...

On the other hand, they're careful to cover themselves in that article, and hopefully will turn out to have given me the correct advice, i.e. I should get my money back even in this worst-case scenario, and if I'd taken it out of there and put it anywhere else, exactly the same thing could have happened anyway...

It's just a bit galling, really. I did everything the nice chancellor told me I should do, carefully saving up my money, making sure I didn't borrow more than I could pay back, and generally being financially responsible. And right at this moment, it seems that I'd have been better off blowing it all on computers and camera gear. At least I'd have some assets to show for it.

On the other hand, that is just at the moment, and it seems that aforementioned chancellor-now-PM, is basically saying "well, you did what I told you, so I'm going to make sure you don't get screwed." Which will be good. I just hope we don't see too many more failing banks, otherwise there's not going to be enough money on the planet to pay back all the people who've lost their savings.