Icesave Have You Been Affected?

October 8, 2008 – 9:52 pm

Having come home last night from a hard days work to then read in the news that Icesave – who I have a small amount of savings with has been nationalised by the Icalandic government was not great news.

What is even more alarming is the lack of information on the Icesave website, the helpful note. “We are currently not processing any deposits or withdrawal requests thought our Icesave internet accounts” does nothing to calm a worried saver.

I guess the truth of the matter is that it is my fault I am in this situation, my gut feeling was to withdraw my savings from them a few months ago, but never quite managed to get round to doing it.

However I am not panicking about the situation yet, the amount I have in the account is less than £1000, which I currently don’t need at the moment and the useful information that I have found on the BBC News site and the Sky News site, appear to show that once the bank has been declared bankrupt people will be able to claim their savings back.

I do however feel sorry when I read some of the stories on the BBC and Sky News sites about people who have saved more than the government guaranteed £50′000 with Icesave, who will lose anything over that amount.

What makes the situation even worse is that Iceland the country is in a very serious financial situation and could itself be declared bankrupt soon. If this happens, because Icesave is an Icelandic bank the first £16′500 of your savings is guaranteed by the Icelandic government and not the UK government, so in theory the worst case scenario would be that you are only guaranteed a maximum of £33′500.

These are very worrying times for the banking sector and they look set to continue for a long time. If you have also been affected by the recent Icesave issue please let me know by leaving a comment.

Useful Information
UK Treasury Press Release
Forum Thread on Icesave
How to get your money back