'Icesave... angry, frustrated and upset...' blog discussion

A question about : 'Icesave... angry, frustrated and upset...' blog discussion

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Best answers:

• When Martin last promoted Icesave at length on April 1st we Brits should have realised the significance of that date. That said I must admit it took me until a fortnight ago to take our money out.. then we put it into Anglo-Irish, that was nearly the end for the flowerpotmen!
• Having read a lot of the threads on ICESAVE on here today, it appears that there is a split between those who are upset/panicking and those [like me] who are philisophical combined perhaps with an element of 'it hasn't really sunk in yet', plus of course the occasional angry element looking for someone to blame.
  What concerns me are the people who run a fairly tight system of money from their ICESAVE savings a/c into their regular bank a/c to cover monthly bills, who through no fault of their own would appear to be stuffed.
  What will happen if they can't pay their bills?
• i put Ј9500 in an icesave Isa just 2 months ago. and now i don't know if i will get my money back. Just b4 8am this morning i took the lot out by BACS but it takes 4 days to clear and it says processed and the balance in icesave is 0. so i wanna know if my money will go in my bank account i transferred it too.?? just after 8am they said you could not take out any money and my account in icesave still says 0. So will it go through to my normal bank account in 4 days or not?????
  thanks carl.
• I have tried to find out if we get our money back can it be put into another ISA to retain the tax advantage. The FSA Helpline doen't know! What hope is there for us mere mortals.
• If we have to use the compensation system aginst Icesave (or any bank) will it include any interest accrued but not yet added to the account?
• "we've seen once immovable bastions like Goldman Sachs, Merrill Lynch and Lehmans, as well as household names like Bradford and Bingley, go kaput"
  Goldman Sachs is most certainly NOT Kaput, neither is Merrill Lynch - Goldman is still functioning as a distinct entity and Merrills has been taken over by Bank of America. Lehmans and B&B have gone under.
  I think you might want to revise that entry
• I applied to transfer my ISA from Icesave a couple of weeks ago and received a letter from Icesave on Saturday latest to say that they had sent a cheque to my new provider. However, this cheque would not appear to have arrived and, even if it does arrive, I am unclear whether the cheque will be paid.
  My account with Icesave seems to have been closed for a few days now.
  Anyhow, this is just a plea to Martin to obtain clarification from the relevant authorities about the positions of different categories of people. Obviously, we all want to hear "you will be covered up to £50,000 by the UK irrespective of what Iceland or Scandinavia may do" but it would also help if the question of what happens to current instructions (i.e. withdrawals/deposits) could be specifically addressed with Icesave, Iceland, Scandinavia and the UK; what the timescale for compensation payouts (if any) will be; how accrued interest will be treated both up to and after Icesave's default; and also, in relation to ISAs, whether any compensation can be rolled over into a new ISA with another provider and if so how. No doubt there may be many other situations that need to be considered.
• I'm one of those who missed all of Martin's warnings re the passport scheme....and now my instant isa seems to have disappeared in a puff of smoke....... that's all my finance buffer gone in one swoop. Fingers crossed i don't have any emergencies come up....and that the compensation scheme does pay out. Thing is....they can't possibly re-open accounts as normal....it's pretty obvious there would be a stampede to take all the money out.....
  And how long will it take to get the money, even if the compensation scheme does pay out?
  Holy smoke....I think it's just starting to sink in.....
• Does anyone have any details about compensation yet?
  Only had one years ISA allowance with Icesave (Ј3600) so am hopeful of getting it back (eventually), but disappointed if I will essentially lose all this years interest and allowance completely.
  Things that would be useful to know at this stage (some may be wishful thinking..):
• When will Landsbanki officially "default" i.e. when can we start claiming?
• The FSCS have said they will handle all claims from Icesave customers (on one form) - I presume the first Ј16,300 will still have to come from Iceland though?
• How long will both claims take to process - first Ј16,300 (from Iceland), remaining part of Ј50,000 (from FSCS)?
• Any idea if it will be possible to somehow maintain this years ISA allowance (I'm presuming this will be a no)?
• Any idea (as someone said above) if any interest from part of this year will be reclaimable?

If someone can add anything to any the above, would be very much appreciated.
Off to buy a very big crunch-proof piggy bank...

• Gawd's sakes, Martin, there's nothing to apologise for!
  The Icesave "product" was always governed by split compensation coverage, and must surely have always been understood to be so by those who went for it.
  I didn't, and I suspect many others here didn't either, precisely because of that complexity: when the worst comes to the worst, the last thing you ever want to do is get caught up in a tangle of who-pays-what / who-pays-when.
  So if that reality was apparent to people like myself, how come it wasn't apparent to others? The answer is: I suspect it was. But they decided -- as they were entitled to do -- that hey, a worst-case scenario is the stuff of fantasy, so why worry about a compensation issue that will never arise?
  This doesn't mean I'm unsympathetic to the 300,000 savers now caught up in the Icelandic mess. But it does mean that the decisions they took were theirs and theirs alone: neither you as an individual nor MSE as a forum bears the remotest responsibility.
  Whilst posting here, can I also clarify the situation re Kaupthing Edge, because it's likely that many who stayed clear of the IceSaver product went to KE instead.
  KE's 'product' is administered through its UK subsidiary. That subsidiary is within the FSCS programme (up to Ј50,000). The question of Icelandic compensation does not arise.
  In recent days, however, it became apparent that a worrying ambiguity had arisen over the question of account novation, i.e., the moving out of savings held by KE's UK subsidiary into the main bank itself, thus resulting in exactly the fraught compensation situation which bedevilled the IceSave product.
  The ambiguity occurred because KE's website promised that any account novation would be subject to 30 days' advance notice -- fair enough, I thought. But then the revised Terms & Conditions (June 2008: I missed 'em at the time) omitted any mention of 30 days' notice, and instead appeared to imply that novation could occur at time-of-notice.
  I mentioned on MSE the urgent need for clarity here and I am sure I was not the only MSEr who transferred out the bulk of their savings from their KE account, pending clarification from Kaupthing Edge of just what it meant: a 30 day notice / no notice at all.
  I'm also sure I wasn't the only MSEr to contact Kaupthing Edge seeking that urgent clarification.
  Kaupthing Edge has responded by issuing new Terms & Conditions which delete any reference to novation. Kaupthing Edge has also deleted reference to novation from its web page.
  In a further step, the Chairman of Kaupthing Edge has issued a statement which says -- explicitly -- that UK savers accounts are "permanently held" in the UK subsidiary.
  That being the case, KE savings are within 100% coverage of the FSCS provision (up to Ј50,000).
  It has, I believe, acted quickly, and fairly, and as I've had nothing but the best possible service from it in the past, my hope is that it will indeed long continue.
  I am now transferring back to my Kaupthing Edge account the savings which were withdrawn.
• Where are Brown and Darling when the country needs them? It's not just Icesave which is in trouble, RBS and HBOS are both going down the tubes if today's share price moves are anything to go by, and we now risk a run on the whole UK banking system if they don't do something serious, such as:
  1. guarantee all deposits in all banks operating under the FSCS (including banks operating in the UK under the "passport")
  2. do something urgently to shore up the capital reserves of all banks.
  Preferably EU-wide action please, and today, not next week or when it's politically expedient to announce it.
  GORDON, WHERE ARE YOU?!
• I set up a substantial withdrawal from Icesave at the end of last week, which has yet to materialize in my linked current account. I also have significant standing orders set up from what remains in my Icesave account. I realize that withdrawals have now been suspended, but don't know whether the transfer will take place (despite it being shown on my online statement) or whether the standing orders will be paid. My attempts to contact Icesave by phone and email have got nowhere. Any information would be welcome.
  (PS after the weekend newspapers' coverage of the crisis, including Iceland and its banks, a run on Icesave was inevitable.)
• Yes, I tried to close my 2 Cash Isas and transfer the money out of Icesave last night, thereby resigning myself to losing the tax free status of the money. Today the site shows my cash has left Icesave but it hasn't arrived in my bank so far although normally a CHAPS transfer gets there the same day. Did it get out at the last minute and just not yet arrive in my bank, or has it all vanished into a big hole?? What really annoys me is that there is no quick and easy way to transfer ISA monies because everyone seems to take at least 30 days to process transfers, so inevitably you end up losing that hard-earned tax-free status if you try to take it out in cash. Surely, as cash ISAs are only available to British nationals, the British government cannot refuse to bail out small savers like me for taking advantage of a British vehicle introduced precisely to encourage small savers to do just that. Needless to say I'm 64 ie a pensioner and of course devastated to think I may have lost over Ј7000 as I now hear Iceland is suggesting they will only compensate Iceland nationals, not other nationalities, having courted us all for so long with such tempting rates - it's nothing short of fraud in my view.
• Hopefully this experience will not change Martin, to whom most of us are extremely grateful for the information and advice he has given us to help us with our consumer revenge.
  Martin, please don't change.
  Hopefully I will retrieve a large part of my savings which I decided to deposit in Icesave.
• On reflection, I'd like to add further comment to my above post. I am very disturbed at what appears to be the underhanded way that the ICESAVE DEBACLE has been handled by those in a position of 'authority'. Only now do I realise there were some very iffy tactics employed at the weekend with non-recognised passwords and deliberate delays in issuing replacement ones.
  From reading the above posts it appears many people have been left 'hangin in the air' mid transactions. Surely there could be some indication on the web site telling people what will happen to their in-transit monies.
  Generally, any bail out plans will relieve saver anxiety, but all confidence in this organisation is down the pan, if we can get our money back, no doubt it'll never be put back in.
  But heh, it's ok because Mr Brown is feeling my pain.:rolleyes: