Bank Ratings
Well its difficult to predict if a bank is totally safe – not even the cleverest of economists could predict a bank would fail. First you can check your bank ratings though. But it is worth always remembering that the UK government will not let a bank fail – as has been seen with its take over of Northern Rock and billions of pounds made available to RBS and HBOS.
What happened with Northern Rock is known as a run on the bank – rumours started about its financial standing causing customers to panic and leading to them withdrawing their funds this caused them to fail and ultimately the government to step in.
If you are worrying about the safety of your money its worth remembering that the FSCS will cover you for £50,000 in a savings account – so it may be prudent to spread ( if you are lucky enough to have lots of it ) your savings around and ensure hat the institute you are planning to put your hear earned money into has signed up to the scheme.
Bear in mind with take overs and mergers some banking groups are registered as one – a good-example of this is HBOS so if you have money in the Halifax and the Birmingham Midshires you are only covered for one amount of £50,000, but if you have money in the Nat West, Coutts and the Royal Bank of Scotland you are covered for all of them – ie £50,000 in spectate accounts in all of them and you are still covered.
Remember your bank strength rating are only an indication of your banks performance and with the economic climate as it is at the minute it would be impossible to accurately predict how safe your bank is with bank ratings tools. Which is why making sure your savings are safe is the far better option.
If you want one hundred percent safety put our money into the NorthernRock or National Savings Certificates as they are government backed so are totally guaranteed to pay out if they were to fail.