Get your banking concerns off your chest

Is the money safe in icesave or Kaputing bank or any other foreign bank up to the amount of £35000.

Hi Ranjit,

Both these banks are covered by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS) so your money, up to £35,000, is safe. However, the way they are covered does differ and this could have a bearing on you should you find yourself in a position to have to make a claim (ie one or both of these banks goes bust).

Kaupthing Edge is fully regulated by the Financial Services Authority (FSA) - therefore 100% of your first £35,000 is covered by the FSCS.

However, Icesave is only partly regulated by the FSA. This means that, if you needed to claim, you would receive part of your compensation from the Icelandic compensation scheme and part of it from the FSCS. So, although you would get all your money (up to £35,000) back it would require you to claim through two different organisations.

This difference is exlained in more detail in this recent article "Are your savings protected".

Also, it's worth bearing in mind that Parliament is currently reviewing the way savers' money is covered by the FSCS and one proposal on the table is changing the rules so savers only have to make a claim once, regardless of the bank they are with.

Again, to find out more about the proposals read this recent article "Savers' money still at risk"

I hope that helps - it is complicated, which is one reason the government is keen to change the rules!

Many of your subscribers like to have a good moan about the banks namely HSBC. Two recent events confirms my trust and satisfactoin with this bank. In April I opened an additonal cash ISA keeping it separate from my existing ones because of the low interest being earned on them. The new one was inadvertently linked with the current ones. I raised my concern about this and the Bank resolved the problem by keeping all the annual ISAs together at the one off higher interest rate!!

On holiday recently I made three large identical transactions with my credit card over the space of about fifteen minutes. I was still dealing with the matter in question when I received a text asking me to contact HSBC as soon as possible. This I did noting their concerns and explaning that the credit card usage was correct. What a speedy security check!! The operator ask also what the small transaction of £30 was and I replied it was to top up my mobile so I would keep in touch with my bank!!!

Nationwide Building Society - I was recently charged £20 + interest by Nationwide for being £81 overdrawn literally for a few hours through no fault of my own. Just under 25% in fees & interest - not a bad way of racking up profits if you can get away with it!

They apparently have to be fair to all their customers. How about being fair to this customer! It's not as if I have made a habit of being overdrawn - infact this is probably the 1st time in 5-years.