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Should I transfer my savings to my old UK bank account

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  • 30-05-2012 12:04pm
    #1
    speedboatchase
    Registered Users Posts: 5,781 ✭✭✭


    A few years ago I had an English bank account as I was studying over there and as luck would have it, I recently came across my account details in an email I had (to myself) a long time ago. The logins still work fine but I'll need to get in touch and change my registered postal address before I can set up internet banking.

    So my question is with the EU in turmoil and Greece potentially leaving the Euro, with us following in a worst-case scenario, should I transfer my savings to the UK account once I have it set up? I've accrued pretty good savings for someone on a fairly low wage and don't want to see the value halve if we went back to the punt. What do you guys think?


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    #2
    Liam D Ferguson
    Registered Users Posts: 542 ✭✭✭Liam D Ferguson


    Be aware that doing what you're suggesting puts your savings at risk also.

    One the one hand, if the scenario you describe plays out, you will have protected your savings against a Euro devaluation.

    On the other, there are lots of other possible scenarios. Example - Greece leaves the Euro following their next vote. Markets react well to the departure. Euro gets stronger. Britain is seen as an outsider. Sterling gets weaker. Your savings lose value anyway.

    I'm not saying that I think my scenario is any more likely than yours. I cannot predict what will happen. Neither can anybody else. Lots of people will give opinions. Some will sound like they know what will happen because it's their job to make such predictions. They don't. Some people's arguments sound more informed because they can back them up with impressive research and figures. Doesn't mean that they can predict what will happen better than you. We can all just speculate.


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    #3
    Ben D Bus
    Registered Users Posts: 2,118 ✭✭✭Ben D Bus


    I have a small(ish) mortgage in Northern Ireland but earn my income in Euro in the South.

    Every couple of months I transfer enough to cover the mortgage plus a bit extra meaning I have enough in my NI account to pay the mortgage for the next couple of years (barring huge interest rate rises in the Sterling zone)

    As Liam says, nobody knows. So I chose to spread the risk. I'm hedging, not speculating. And certainly not panicking!


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    #4
    NIMAN
    Registered Users Posts: 33,468 ✭✭✭✭NIMAN


    The UK economy is hardly booming these days either. They are in just as much debt as everyone else.

    The only thing that having their own currency allows them to do, is to devalue if they need to. If you have all your savings in sterling and they do this ..........

    As poster above said, no-one knows what will happen.


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