The credit Crunch and the Banks

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Right im slightly confused.

I know (well i thought i did) what a credit crunch is. But at the moment, with all the banks being in trouble and stuff, what's happening to my/our money. Im with Halifax and have 2 current accounts. One student and one normal. Is the bank going bust? or what happens if they do, what happens to my money etc. All this is just confusing me at the moment and don't know what to do. Should i switch banks?
 
IIRC the rule of thumb is if you have less than £25/35k (i forget which) with a bank then the govt will give you the money back if they go bust. As long as the total you have is less than that then there's really not much to worry about.

Feel free to correct me though.

[EDIT] Ah, it appears its £35k
 
Your bank is owned by HBOS, which is merging with/being taken over by Lloyds TSB. So your money is as safe as Lloyds is, which, given the reputation of that august institution, is probably about as safe as it can be.
Ironically, the safest bank in the country atm is probably Northern Rock. It's the next best thing to having an account with the Bank of England.
 
Ah okay, just worrying me as i hear people on train talking about which bank to go bust money being injected in so and so just worrying me. No i dont keep much money in lol

Have about 3-4k at the moment saving from placement, might be opening an ISA soon. Just worried,
 
If you have under £35k in total in both accounts your money is secure. HBOS will probably survive as Lloyds TSB Group should buy them out. Your guess is as good as mine, are any banks safe at present. If you are really unsure then move elsewhere but make sure they are covered by the FSA.
 
This term 'credit crunch' is really starting to grate me. :mad:

Hmm tell me about it........ Oh noes, the world is falling apart..!! We've had this before in 1920, I'm sure we can get through it again....

Labour will do ALL they can to ensure the HBOS /Lloyds TSB deal goes through, as they will want to ensure they don't have to shore up yet another bank that's ran out of funds, and you're money is well safe BTW.....

There has been talk recently of increasing the threshold to 50K anyway... Can't remember where I read that, have to see if I can find the article again.... Interesting read at the time...
 
Ahh.. What about overdrafts? I currently have a £500 overdraft and would like to increase to £1000, would they do it or they;d simply go to me " sorry no cash" lol
 
Ahh.. What about overdrafts? I currently have a £500 overdraft and would like to increase to £1000, would they do it or they;d simply go to me " sorry no cash" lol

We don't know. We're not the bank. I'm sure £500 won't make much of a difference to Halifax. It'll be more based off your credit record and current financial situation.
 
If you have less than £35,000 in a bank that starts to struggle, don't copy the thousands of other silly people and withdraw it. This makes things worse.
 
If you have less than £35,000 in a bank that starts to struggle, don't copy the thousands of other silly people and withdraw it. This makes things worse.

I think if a bank cannot hold the confidence of its customers it's not silly if they move their money.

DO you know how hard it is and how long it takes to get your >35k back?
 
No the debt will get sold to another company who will then take over the account. In a very over simplified way, that's kinda the whole root cause of the credit crunch.

Sadly not, loan sharks will buy the debt on the cheap with all their bundles of organised crime cash then extract your mortgage payments with a bat :p

That's the bit that gets me about all this panic. If my bank goes **** up the goverment will give me my savings & somebody else will carry on taking my mortgage payments. Unless interest rates surge through the roof it doesn't look like it will affect me
 
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