Just noticed over on the MSE (Martin Lewis) that he's pushing the Kaupthing Edge High Interest Savings Account - anyone here got one?

Thinking of lashing my savings in there for a while. Currently I'm getting 4.3% at the Natwest so this will see a nice increase (around 6.3% gross).

I've had one for several months, moved money to and from it with no problems.

Thanks for the reply Went ahead and opened an account with them, looking forward to earning some proper interest!

Ive got one of them, they are regulated by the FSA and you get good interest

The best bit is that unlike some of the high street banks (Halifax 10% etc) you can put away more than £500 per month.

For max interest make sure you have put your £3600 yearly allowance into an ISA first.

4.3%??? shut that down fast! I opened the ICICI HiSave and that's been excellent for putting away surplus cash for the past 18months, but now it's only about 6.2%. On the other hand if you've got a decent lump sum in natwest you should definitely consider the ICICI 1 year fixed bond at 7.3%. Can't beat that anywhere. I also have an ICE Save account which is worth looking into. Also, it's a liittle late now but I moved £5k of my ICICI funds into a Halifax Guaranteed Saver account at 6.5% which then qualified me for a whopping 12% rate on the Halifax Regular Saver account with £500 a month for 1 year. That's over £300 in interest right there.

Most of this was from info gathered at MSE. And I concur that you should max out your ISA first as I've done. Barclays was the best at 6.5% for a year. I managed to get both last year's and this year's allocation into that before the financial year, and the rest into an ICE Save ISA at 6.1% or whatever.

efunc:

4.3%???

 

I dont know where you got 4.3%, im getting 7.15%

http://www.kaupthingedge.co.uk/our-products/fixed-term-savings-account.aspx

damn i wish i wasnt a student and had mon ey to my nahe. i could generate 5k by sellign the golf tho. hmmmmmmmm

*begins to contemplate selling the golf*

TDIneil:

efunc:

4.3%???

I dont know where you got 4.3%, im getting 7.15%

read the first post.

efunc:

TDIneil:

efunc:

4.3%???

I dont know where you got 4.3%, im getting 7.15%

read the first post.

'removes dunces hat and reads post'

That is a truly awful rate, when you see some of the headline rates advertised by high street lenders you feel like diving in.

its only when you read the small print you realise you have been tucked up (more than 2 withdrawls, minimum invested etc) then the rate drops to 0.8%.

It all reminds me of the mobile phone tariffs where you have to send your bill in on the 3rd, 6th 9th month etc and within 3 days of receiving it to get your refund.

I'm currently in a 'saving mode' so I'm less concerned about the withdrawal penalties imposed on some of these accounts. however the top 10 lists at MSE and Money Supermarket are a great place to start and come with few restrictions. I've just had my application for the AmEx Platinum Cash Back credit card accepted. Best deal going at the moment.

Kaupthing Edge is also very highly regarded, as are Ice Save and ICICI. All foreign banks BTW. Our domestic high street banks are the very last place anyone should go for anything other than a simple current account. Usually they get you early with an incentive and try and retain your custom for the rest of your life taking advantage of customer loyalty and lethargy. There's usually far more attractive deals elsewhere. (And this is someone with 7 HSBC accounts!! soon to be moved..)

Thought I'd follow up this post after a couple of months of using this bank, especially following the news that Icelandic banks are also being hit by the (BBC termed) 'Global Financial Crisis'.

I'm in two minds whether to move my money out although I am covered by the FSA's guarantee. Does anyone know how long it would take to reclaim my money from the FSA / UK Government should the worst happen and the bank freezes their assets?

Found out that it would take around 1 month to reclaim any lost money from the FSA, dependant upon the bank itself being regulated by them (which Kaupthing are).

Well the UK guarantee is the one u need, as Iceland's own one is a bit dodgy considering the pot of money set aside is only £88m, and total savers deposits are close to 154 TIMES that amount! Yikes.

iceland is in serious crisis. it might be the first nation to go into liquidation in this credit crunch because of the massive growth in their international banking services over the past 5 years. They've left themselves totally exposed like no other country. Kaupthing is slightly safer than icesave, but nonetheless I'm going to transfer my ISA out this week. Did you see the channel 4 news piece this evening?

Channel 4 news was seriously scary tonight.

How much I should take notice of this daily battering of financial meltdown and general gloom I don't know. We have been cheering ourselves up by watching Early Doors on DVD....

Tabs:

Does anyone know how long it would take to reclaim my money from the FSA / UK Government should the worst happen and the bank freezes their assets?

I've studied the FSA Compensation Scheme documents a while back.

They are conveniently very vague.  Perhaps your great-grandkids can collect it for you. 

http://www.fscs.org.uk/consumer/faqs/deposit_claims_faqs/

6. How long will it take to process my claim?

After a declaration of default, FSCS aims to process all claims within six months. However, the time this takes depends very much on the type of claim. For example, most credit union claims can be completed within four weeks. For other types of claim it may take longer, depending on how complex it is and on some factors that may be outside of our control, such as waiting for information from third parties.

I was seriously going to mention a while back on this forum that I can't understand the attraction of Icelandic banks.  Cmon... they only have a population of 375,000 people, and what by way of natural resources or military power? 

They have stake in football clubs and big retail and food outlets of course.. and enjoyed the economic benefits of the US being stationed there in the cold war, and fish of course.... for anyone who remembers the Cod Wars when Iceland increasingly got hostile with us fishing in their waters, which they upped their range limits to, until they officially declared war on the UK back in the 1980s.

oh come on, they've got bjork too!!

 so, on the basis of Iceland closing down ( its all gone to pot since they didn't renew old juggy jumper bunnies contract ), where would you put your savings now ? I really need to do something about mine as the interest I get is woeful ( i won't even tell you how low )

damianmkv:

where would you put your savings now ?

Just looking now, Birmingham Midshires and Bradford & Bingley (latter of which has just been nationalised) are offering 6.52% and 6.51% respectively. Both offer no penatlies for withdrawal of your cash. Bradford & Bingley will also guarantee to match the BoE base rate until October 2010.

ING Direct have a good deal on at the moment with 6.5% but that includes a 1.66% bonus for the first 12 months - although my colleage in work has just shouted over the top of her screen that they've opted for something called passport exemption, which could make claiming money back in the event of a collapse more lenghty/difficult.

All things considered I'm going to move my money out of Kaupthing while I decide what to do. It was a gamble at the time but hopefully I won't loose out. They have put a statement up on their site stating they are shure footed.

Oh dear, Landsbanki has just been bailed by the Icelandic Government. Kaupthing are now the only remaining independent bank in Icleand.

Mark, Natwest are offering a 12 month bonus on new e-saving accounts, taking it to 6.5% at todays rates. I'm guessing your cash was in one of these, before you moved it. Good news is, you can have more than one e-saving account, so it's just a question of opening a second, which is what I'm doing ATM. I'm working on the basis that, if Natwest/RBS goes down, we're all FUBAR'ed anyway.

I noticed that this morning Roger, wasn't sure if you could have a second e-saver account so moved onto investigating the other banking offers. Thanks for the heads up, will set that up now