UK Landlord Forum / Life

If so, what action(s) have you taken?

I don't have anything with them right now, but if I had some cash I'd be tempted to buy some shares.

All this queueing outside branches is just a horrible reminder of how little the "average guy" understands about finances, and how influenced he is by the media.

They had interviews this morning with some of the people stood outside the branch in Golders Green, and their reasons for withdrawing funds might as well have been "because everyone else is doing it! look look there's a queue! omg if I don't get there first something bad might happen, not that I have any idea wtf I'm talking about"

Kind of worrying really.


V

V,

We're on the same wavelength! I was thinking about buying shares lol. If they drop, I don't think they'll go down much further. The only way is up after that, I'm thinking!!

If you were in their position, and had 100k in your account- would you just leave it in there?

It would depend on how soon I might need it, and what it was there for. If it was my emergency fund, I might take out 10 or 20K and stick it somewhere where it won't get caught up in some compensation battle, in case I need it in the meantime.

But ... who leaves £100K languishing in an account anyway? If these people are taking that kind of money out of ISAs directly instead of transferring to another ISA provider they must be out of their skulls. If I had £100K to spare, it probably wouldn't all be in one account or one bank; it'd be split across the high street to reduce the impact of anything like what's going on atm - in high interest savings accounts/ISAs/similar vehicles, some of it would be in shares, and I might be playing with some currencies too.

I don't get why all these people are going to the branch, mind. Don't they have internet banking? Isn't there at least telephone banking? Who would stand in queue outside a shop when they're obviously going to walk out with a bunch of cash on them, possibly over £30K, drawing attention to themselves??

All that's going on right now is panic - like people queueing for petrol during the "petrol crisis" just in case the crisis (they're generating) goes on for longer than a week, or people filling their freezer full of cr@p they couldn't eat in a month just before christmas when the shops are open on 27th and 28th.


V

Actually, and here's my slightly-cynical pet theory, I think Lloyds TSB will buy them out, at about a third of what they'd have had to pay in the deal that was almost closed about a week ago.

Why pay more for a solid business when you can pay less ... especially when you can hold your hands up and proclaim its entirely the result of the "liquidity crisis".


V

Ha, just heard the news, the shares have slightly increased already. I guess that's the impact from people being guarenteed.

Are the customers still earning interest?

Quote from: vwilson on September 18, 2007, 09:50:12 AM
It would depend on how soon I might need it, and what it was there for. If it was my emergency fund, I might take out 10 or 20K and stick it somewhere where it won't get caught up in some compensation battle, in case I need it in the meantime.

But ... who leaves £100K languishing in an account anyway? If these people are taking that kind of money out of ISAs directly instead of transferring to another ISA provider they must be out of their skulls. If I had £100K to spare, it probably wouldn't all be in one account or one bank; it'd be split across the high street to reduce the impact of anything like what's going on atm - in high interest savings accounts/ISAs/similar vehicles, some of it would be in shares, and I might be playing with some currencies too.

I don't get why all these people are going to the branch, mind. Don't they have internet banking? Isn't there at least telephone banking? Who would stand in queue outside a shop when they're obviously going to walk out with a bunch of cash on them, possibly over £30K, drawing attention to themselves??

All that's going on right now is panic - like people queueing for petrol during the "petrol crisis" just in case the crisis (they're generating) goes on for longer than a week, or people filling their freezer full of cr@p they couldn't eat in a month just before christmas when the shops are open on 27th and 28th.


V

Listening to the people in the queues was kind of like watching Pop Idol. You know at the stage where people queue up and talk about their emotions.

Haven't you been watching the news? You'd be surprised how much money people shove into one account. This one woman was waiting to close down a £750,000 account this morning. And i've heard a lot of similar stories over the last few days.

I think a lot of people find it easy just to store all their savings into one high interest account, as opposed to spreading it across the high street.

When you consider that the FSA only protect the 90% of the first £30K in any given bank, putting £750K in one place seems like an interesting strategy. I suppose it is easier, but then so is leaving money in an account with a rubbish interest rate, or leaving your VISA balances on 16.9%. Nothing about looking after money is easy. "Mo money mo problems"


In any case ... http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7000035.stm


V

SHOULD WE BUY, V?

SHOULD WE?