Spreading deposits for safety- opinions!

Hey, I've been on here before asking for opinions on deposit safety. I have circa 300k in savings with which I previously intended buying a house however I have decided to hold off on buying and rent for a year or so. I am planning on spreading the money something like the below to ensure deposit safety. Deposit safety is more important to me than rate although I would of course like to get some interest.

Rabodirect 100k (main reason: AAA rated and voted 'World's Safest Privately Owned Bank' by Global Finance Magazine in August 2009)
Also, "The Dutch Deposit Guarantee System guarantees the interests of account holders, and applies to deposits in current and savings accounts. Under the Deposit Guarantee Scheme, if Rabobank is unable to meet its obligations to repay a customer's balance, the customer is guaranteed to be repaid 100% of the first €100,000 of his balance. On the 10th March 2009 the Dutch Deposit Guarantee scheme has been extended until the end of 2010 when the European guarantee scheme will come into effect".

Northern Rock 50k (main reason: UK Financial Services Compensation Scheme and the Irish Deposit Guarantee Scheme, providing total cover of up to €100,000 per customer but more importantly 50k covered by UK financial institutions scheme. Also now due to restructering 'Northern rock plc' is "a new, well-capitalised bank that will hold and service all customer savings accounts and some existing mortgage accounts, as well as offering new mortgage and savings products to new and existing customers." whilst the existing co. has unsecured loans etc meaning it will be in a good position.

Investec 50k (main reason: 50k covered by UK financial institutions scheme). Don't know much about these- any info would be much appreciated.

NIB 60k (Reason: "Danske Bank is the biggest bank in Denmark and one of Europe's strongest and best capitalised financial institutions. Also all deposit accounts with National Irish Bank are covered, through combined protection under the Danish Guarantee fund for depositors and investors and the irish deposit guarantee scheme, up to a maximum of €100,000 per depositor even though the danish state guarantee expires 30/09/10.

AIB 40k (not huge amount and will use this account for living expenses etc. Also covered by irish deposit guarantee scheme for accounts less 100k whatever protection that provides!... which has no end date -correct?


Would very much appreciate opinions on spreading the sum as outlined. Please criticise freely or point out any mistakes I've made!!!!! Thanks in advance!! M

If deposit safety is more important than the rate then why even consider someone like AIB. Not saying they are going bust but between someone like them and Rabo, who are much safer, clearly rabo are for you.

There are posts on all the institutions you have listed above and how safe, good, bad, ugly they all are if you log in and search for them individually here.

mmmmm,

If you are putting your 300k aside for future purchase of house, I think it would be a bad idea to have your 40k in AIB available for living expenses.

You could be down to 260k available before you know it.

mmmmm said:

Investec 50k (main reason: 50k covered by UK financial institutions scheme). Don't know much about these- any info would be much appreciated.

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BBB rated, moderately competitive savings rates, good customer service ...

Dec. 14 (Bloomberg) -- Investec Ltd. and its unit Investec Bank Ltd. had their long-term foreign-currency issuer default ratings downgraded to BBB from BBB+ by Fitch Ratings.

The outlook on both ratings is stable, Fitch said.

“The downgrades reflect the difficult operating environment and worsening credit conditions in South Africa, which have impacted the financial performance and asset quality indicators of Investec Bank and Investec Ltd., Fitch said in a statemen today.”

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Is not the question :should you be holding on to Euro's in the medium term?

should one consider opening saving accounts in other euro countries...ie Germany?

If the worst happens with Ireland and we are forced to leave the euro and go back to using the punt and then devalue and possibly re-enter the euro at a later date, whats happens to all the euro savings in our locally regulated banks, do they get converted to punts?

There would have to be a long led time for a currency conversion and some banks would surely still offer EUR accounts.

Thanks everyone for feedback. I think I'll reconsider AIB. The bigger problem is whether its plausible to assume that something like what 'rg tlnm' ref'erenced above is possible.

cml387 said:

Is not the question :should you be holding on to Euro's in the medium term?

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True, is holding onto euro for the next 1-2 years advisable?