My belated congratulations to you and your mum Kevin. It settles the mind when these things are finally sorted.

Yes, the present interest rates situation is a horror story.

I cannot yet relate my Skipton saga because it STILL isn't finished. Their sheer incompetence, laziness and audacity etc. etc. has had me spitting blood this week. I cannot write what I feel because it would be censored. I think it will be some to come before I can come on here to tell you it is all done, if it ever will be. If I knew then what I know now, I would have followed others' examples on here and opened a NatWest ISA.

Hi Everyone,

We should all have invested in gold. My £35k which was in Icesave is now worth £35,385. Had I bought gold bars, my £35k would now be worth £107k.

A sign of the times...

PETITION TO DOWNING STREET TO INCREASE INTEREST RATES FOR SAVERS'

A friend has set up the following petition which has been accepted by 10 Downing Street.

Please add your names and encourage as many savers as possible to join.

Here's the link:

http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/Savings-Increase/

MANY THANKS

Derek

With interest rates at 1% I can understand low savings rates.

What I don't understand is how Mortgages without a 25% or 40% deposit are still running at 5%, personal car loans are around 9% and Debenhams (or GM Bank) are charging 29.99999% on my wife's storecard.

Thanks swifts I'll go and have a look and sign this.... Hope everybody is well

Hi

If anyones still interested my fixed term bond matured 10/03/2009 and I received cheque from FSCS on 16/03/2009.

I may send them a demand for £100 late payment penalty####

Hope all are well and best wishes

reddy5039:

Hi

If anyones still interested my fixed term bond matured 10/03/2009 and I received cheque from FSCS on 16/03/2009.

I may send them a demand for £100 late payment penalty####

Hope all are well and best wishes

Yes, that definitely IS interesting - thanks for letting us know reddy.

I was pleased to see this post.

After a period of inactivity, I logged on today to see if there were any posts from savers who had elected to leave their fixed term interest bonds until they matured. I do not think a week is too long to wait, especially if cheque payment is sent by post.

The loss of interest between maturity and receipt could, for me, have been in excess of £6/day but now ... well, it's negligable. More important to find a safe haven until savers' rates improve which is, I fear, some way off.

After receiving a confirmation letter from the FCSC about 6 weeks ago letting me know that they had received my communication regarding my fixed term account I decided to give them a ring to see what happens next. They told me that they were busy paying out money still and would be getting round to dealing with us fixed term account holders later.

Oh Well, I suppose that will have to do for now.

All the best

Update to my response dated 18th March.

My fixed interest account matured on the 24th. I was anticipating the compensation cheque arriving next week. It was raised yesterday and recieved FCP today I think that is pretty good service and hope others, in a similar situation, will be dealt with as promptly.

Hi Martin, Great news and I am pleased for you. My last fixed term matures in March 2011. Lets hope they continue to be as efficient. One further point to ask, did the documentation say it was compensation? My understanding is that compensation means that you do not pay tax on the amount awarded. If I'm right, and I'm sure I won't be, no tax should have been stopped on the amount of compensation awarded above the original capital figure.

The accompanying documentation did say it was compensation and the cheque signatory also refers to the FSCS (in full). I am not sure of the tax position but my guess would be that you'll receive payment in line with the terms originally contracted to.

Having said that, the very nature of the compensation awarded has altered in one fundamental aspect. One could have received immediate repatriation of capital plus interest accrued up to 8th October 2008 or allowed a fixed interest bond to run to maturity. In the latter case - and for most of us with interest rates going the way they have, the most sensible - you forgo the opportunity of drawing interest on a monthly basis. This was the caused of some hardship amongst investors.

If you have a bond maturing in March 2011, I fear the interest payment will be paid net of tax - assuming you have not registered for gross payment - and it will also show up as a receipt in the 2010/11 tax year. Logically interest payments should be accrued on an annual basis but I do not think this is usual practice.

Maybe an accountant or taxation expert could post a more comprehensive answer on these points. Even with the best forward planning and good intentions you will find banks have a habit of shifting the month interest payments are made; sometimes effecting two payments within one tax year and none the following.

kev2006n,

Hi. I'm new to this forum, and unfortunately I can confirm that your mum is definitely not the last person to receive her Icesave compensation from FSCS. My wife might well hold that distinction. She had a variable Cash ISA but due to a cash in transit issue (they had some of her cash sitting unallocated in a holding account at the time of the crash) we could not use the electronic system. We received our paper application forms in November and returned them immediately.

Since then, the only communications we have received from anyone are TWO copies of the ISA Reinstatement Certificate (both for the balance excluding the unallocated amount). No acknowledgement of our application, no updates on progress, no queries about the unallocated amount - nothing.

Letters and e-mails to FSCS are not replied to, phone calls to the customer service team are a waste of time because the staff manning these phones seem to have no system to provide information about the status of claims. Promises to get someone more senior to call back are never followed up. Only by phoning on a weekly basis for the past 2 months and refusing to hang up until someone else comes to the phone did my wife finally managed to get someone to ackowledge that they have indeed received her claim (on 29th November), and that it "is being dealt with". But no-one can tell her what the status of it is - do they agree her balance, have they added the holding cash to the balance, when will they send the cheque??

She is often given some vague comment about her claim being dealt with by another office in Newcastle, and FSCS having to wait for a reply from there. But no-one ever seems to chase a reply. Requests for a contact number or name in Newcastle are denied.

Rant over. I know FSCS was doing a very difficult and unprecedented job, and for the majority of people have done it well, but they do seem to be struggling to complete the job in our case.

So, my question now is - what happens to the tax free status of my wife's cash if she doesn't receive it next week in time to reinvest before 5th April? The only update on the FSCS website since December still says that monies must be reinvested by 5th April to retain tax free status, the Icesave FAQ's seem to have been removed, and my e-mails asking this question are not replied to. Does anyone know the answer?

Regards.

Notdeadfred: The deadine's been extended by six months for Icesave ISA funds to be reinvested in another ISA.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/moneybox/7969818.stm

ShepherdsPie : many thanks for the link. I hadn't seen it. So that's good news, now we just need our funds back - hopefully we won't need to wait the full 6 months!