Reclaiming My Icesave Savings – Day 1

This blog is normally focused on Internet Marketing, eBay and technology based posts, but I happened to have a savings account with the Icelandic bank – Icesave. Yesterday, Tuesday 7th October it was announced that their parent bank, Landsbanki had gone into receivership and had been nationalized. All Icesave customers were unable to deposit, or withdraw money….But on the brightside, I guess we are now all proud owners of a glacier!

Since then it’s been very unclear as to where we stand, so I thought I’d blog about how to get back savings that were held with Icesave.

To start with, let’s take a look at the deposit insurance you SHOULD have with an Icelandic bank: (Taken from the Sky news website)

If an Icelandic bank fails UK customers are protected up to £50,000

Joint accounts will be protected up to £100,000

The first £16,170 of their money is protected by Iceland

The remaining £33,830 is protected by the UK government

If Iceland goes bankrupt, the UK will not cover the first £16,170

Since then we’ve heard that the Iceland Government has no plans to honor the insurance, which this morning caused the UK Government to personally guarantee all deposits in Icesave, and take legal action against Iceland for defaulting on the guarantee. It has also frozen all UK assests of Landsbanki until more information in available.

So where are we at know, and what should we do?

Well, there’s not really anything we can do. Nobody really knows how to go about claiming, or who to make a claim to. I’m sure things will become clearer in the coming days, but for now we have to wait for more information.

What Have I Done So Far?

I’ve logged into my Icesave account and printed off a statement of my account!

That’s all for now, I’ll post again when I have more information.

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Comments

One Response to “Reclaiming My Icesave Savings – Day 1”

1. Dominique says:

   Thursday, 9 October 2008 at 10:36 am

   I heard about it. I am really sorry for these people, as well as for you.

   But in all honesty, I personally like the fact that some governments nationalized their banks in order to save them and especially their employees.

   Because before anyone or anything else we have to think to their employees: unemployment has never been good for a country’s economy. Only workers bring in money to the State.

   Well, unfortunately, I am not sure that you even are owner of a small part of a glacier as when a company is 100% nationalized, there will be no shareholder any more, except the State.

   At this moment, Belgium is living the same kind of problem with Fortis and Dexia.

   Our government sold Fortis to BNP Paribas, a French company that plans to dismiss 50% of Fortis employees in order to save their… shareholders. However, shareholders played and… lost. It’s a game, no security. Once again, I am really sorry but I am also realistic: as a matter of national economy, I prefer to focus on workers.

   That is the reason why Belgians ask our government to nationalize the Belgian part of Dexia. It’s seems being too late for Fortis (that’s what our government says but they don’t understand anything on the subject and I don’t believe them!)

   I’ve been working for 15+ years in almost each and every bank in Belgium and never would invest a single red cent into their shares nor in any other company as I know that it’s at high risk.

   My only investment is in… bricks. Sure value. Buy a building (for an amount that you can afford, not the building you dreamed about) and rent their apartments, there will always be people who need a flat, regardless of whether the price is high or not; is a safe annuity.

   But well, I’m Belgian and I have a brick in the belly, lol.