I've recently developed a website which lets you quickly check whether your savings across various banks are covered by the FSA's £35k guarantee, and would like to get some feedback on it (constructive criticism preferably!)
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I'm looking for answers to questions like:
a) is it useful? if not, can you suggest any improvements?
b) is it easy to use? if not, what's the problem?
c) is it fast enough?
If you take the time to take a look - thanks! Please send me any comments via email, rather than clogging up this list, or use the comment page on the site.
Congratulations, for even approaching this problem. It's one that I'm sure many punters aren't even aware of. I recently tried to check on all my current and intended saving providers connections using the FSA online register and, whilst it is all there, it's a bit indirect and rather sensitive to needing one particular form of the provider's name, as well as responding with some rather lengthy lists of associated providers with many small variations in name. It's also important in the current climate that savers are aware of the limits of this scheme, not just per account/borrower, but overall, and that it can only meet defaults on deposits up to £1.84bn per year, or if that isn't enough, its total levy on all providers would cover defaults of £4.03bn per year. No doubt this is adequate where one instution might fail but still have considerable reserves, but in the present climate, and where market loans might have preferential call on assets (which I believe may be the case), one wonders where that might leave the ordinary depositor if there were major defaults over several institutions, (and which would leave fewer to pay the levy).
In the case of NR with £100bn in total loans, and £20+bn of that in retail deposits, it has been said that those who panicked and took their money out may have been acting wisely.
In addition to typing in full details of all savings, what would be really useful would be if you could just choose any bank from your list and get a list of the other banks which were common deposit takers. Basically, a user-friendly way of doing what seems more complex when consulting the FSA database directly. That would help people judge whether they have to look in more detail at their actual savings, and would help those considering opening an account with a new provider to know whether there would be any overlap/conflict.
Renders well in Firefox2, but not so well in IE6 Accessibility seems OK and renders well in Lynx (text browser) A few errors show up in the W3C validator
Yes, it's something that needs much more awarenes, and there have been further changes recently, supposedly to rationalise, but which make things more complicated (and risky) for the saver. I've been notified in the last year that my Cheltenham and Gloucster ISAs are now C & G Savings, and the deposit taker is LloydsTSB, and my Intelligent Finance ISAs now have Bank of Scotland as deposit taker. These relationships are reflected in the chart on the site
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which someone else has pointed us to. Looking at is has just reminded me that the Birmingham Midshires internet account which I'm opening also has Bank of Scotland as deposit taker, so I have to watch my total deposits in Birmingham Midshire + Intelligent Finance. That same article in moneysavingsexpert.com also discusses the finite limits of the compensation scheme which I mentioned in an earlier post.
The right hand adverts infring on the text on IE6.
What about current account mortgages where there's separate savings and loan accounts (if any exist - Halifax?).
"FAQ
What if you have both a savings account and a cash account for a SIPP with the same company?
The FSCS has one limit for savings, and another limit for investments. So the savings account has a maximum guarantee of £ 35,000 and the SIPP account has a separate maximum guarantee of £48,000."
This is unclear. The bank account is quite often with a separate institution because the SIPP provider is not an authorised bank.
I sought clarification on SIPPs and posted the respose here -
Thanks for the feedback, very useful. I'll be making some changes to help sort out the usability with IE6 in the future, and fix any other validation problems I find.
In the meantime, however, I've implemented the "quick lookup" feature, which many people have requested. Please take a look at
'Small risks' are always difficult to assess, and if you are the worried type then you should also consider other 'small risks'. E.g. fraud, or inflation (e.g how the government/market can destroy the value of any savings, or the risk of a bank 'run' or total financial meltdown.). You should also be interested in credit ratings (which banks & BSs are at highest risk..?). Also there is confusion in the level of protection for non UK banks and how long it would take to get your dosh back.
Basically I think it is useful to have an awareness, but whenever you look for "100%"certainty" in anything you open a big can of worms...
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