Have some savings to put somewhere

INEEDANID

I have some savings to put away about 15k

I wouldn't think i'll need the cash for a couple of years but could need to get at it if I lost my job.

Its not a huge amount by any means but I had a look at what the Irish banks are offering interest wise and is pretty poor in my opinion.

Im a small bit worried about the value or the euro dropping and was thinking of saving the money in a British bank or maybe even in sterling cash in a deposit box.

Anyone have any ideas?

camlinhall

After hearing about Italy yesterday it looks like the Euro could collapse completely, Germany relaunch the DMark, and woe betide anyone whose savings aren't in Sterling. (The US dollar has questions over it too, the US national debt is out of control).
And I (an idiot) thought the Brits were being typically isolationist and Francophobic in staying out of the common currency.

So I'm very keen to get advice, anyone?

ridelm

I have done a quick research on the internet and it looks like the performance of the british banks are quite poor compared to the irish ones.

Besides, I am fully aware that the Euro could be compromised. But I don't think you can open an account abroad if you never live in the country you want the account for.

bacon?

camlinhall wrote: »

After hearing about Italy yesterday it looks like the Euro could collapse completely, Germany relaunch the DMark, and woe betide anyone whose savings aren't in Sterling. (The US dollar has questions over it too, the US national debt is out of control).
And I (an idiot) thought the Brits were being typically isolationist and Francophobic in staying out of the common currency.

So I'm very keen to get advice, anyone?

Germany going back to the DMark, where are you getting this information?

Jim2007

ridelm wrote: »

I have done a quick research on the internet and it looks like the performance of the british banks are quite poor compared to the irish ones.

This is very true, after the recapitalization AIB and Irish Life are now among the top 18 banks out of the 90 banks tested. None of the UK banks make it into the top 25. BOI is at worst in line with the UK banks although I expect it is actually a little ahead of them.

ridelm wrote: »

Besides, I am fully aware that the Euro could be compromised. But I don't think you can open an account abroad if you never live in the country you want the account for.

Yes it is possible for an EU citizen to open an account in another EU state. DB seems to be happy enough to open accounts for Irish citizens, although give the stress testing of the various banks, I'm not sure if it is really such a hot idea any more. DB's T1 is accepted at about 6.5% where as Irish Live comes in at around 20%!!! That is about 4 to 5 percent higher than Switzerland's top flight banks! Dig a little further into the figures and you'll find that they have an exposure of about 55B to the pigs and about 40B to Italy -scary stuff!

Jim

Jim2007

camlinhall wrote: »

After hearing about Italy yesterday it looks like the Euro could collapse completely, Germany relaunch the DMark, and woe betide anyone whose savings aren't in Sterling. (The US dollar has questions over it too, the US national debt is out of control).
And I (an idiot) thought the Brits were being typically isolationist and Francophobic in staying out of the common currency.

So I'm very keen to get advice, anyone?

Reacting to rumours is one of the best ways to loose money! Always try and base you decisions of hard facts, stop listening to the talking heads and do your own research. The European Banking Authority has released a wealth of information about the banks last week, spend some time looking at that and you'll realise that if you are banking with either AIB or IL&P, you are banking with a bank that easily exceeds the ability of an UK banks to meet the stress test requirements! Go on to dig a bit further and find the table showing the country exposure of each bank and see just how exposed the UK banks are to Ireland, Portugal, Spain, Greece and Italy - I make it about €190B! And remember the UK government is on the hook for most of that!!! The UK is anything but a safe haven, I'd place them very close to Italy, it is just that the mark has not noticed yet!

The reality is that you can't avoid financial risk when it comes to investing, but you can reduce it by diversification, so rather than investing it all in one area spread it out so you reduce your exposure.

Jim.

camlinhall

bacon? wrote: »

Germany going back to the DMark, where are you getting this information?

I heard this seriously discussed as an outside possibility (a Euronews debate tossaround).
Now disregard everything I said. It's rubbish compared to the other contributions.

camlinhall

Jim2007 wrote: »

Reacting to rumours is one of the best ways to loose money!
Jim.

Good contribution, thanks Jim