After all the latest events with Northern Rock, I am taking a closer look at my parents' financial investments. The whole of their life savings (250K) is in a First Active Elevator account.
Is First Active, as an institution, a safe one? I don't really understand the reasons why NR was more at risk than others, so I guess just wondering is First Active a similar type of business to NR or safer?
Pls correct me if I'm wrong but I think that 1st active belongs to the "Royal Bank of Scotland" group... A huge one! I think they are much more "protected" in my opinion...
I remember Northern Rock being described as safe for much the same reasons i.e. it was huge with massive assets. Now, it seems nobody would accept that reassurance. But this is getting out of control now. People asking about First Active and now Anglo Irish. It looks like under the mattress is the only thing that will pacify some people now.
I hope FA is safe as I'm going to top up my FA eSavings account with NR money.
The rest will have to go into RaboDirect until it finds a better home. The UB reward reserve at 4.5% with some minor withdrawal restrictions looks ok (but min €10k balance) and it's the same rate NR were/is offering.
I suppose if you really want to play it extra safe you would put no more than 20k in any Irish account - this is the maximum that is protected under the Deposit Protection Scheme in Ireland. In fact it is 90% of deposits upto 20k. But maybe that would be going too far?
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The UK protection scheme - which covers Northern Rock is a good bit better than the Irish one. (First 2000 GBP covered and 90% of next 33k GBP)