Can anyone give me some advice regarding Fixed Rate accounts.

I put my saving into a Icesave fixed rate account in Jan07, believing I would not be needing any extra cash for the year. I am aware your not supposed to take money out or close the account until it has reached full term, but I have had a wonderful life changing oppitunity to buy a property in Eygpt with my partner ,but of course I need my savings out of the fixed account. I wrote a groveling letter pleading my case and after 4 nail bitting weeks was told NO, I cant have my savings due to terms and conditions. Its left myself and partner heartbroken, I have been into the high street banks and they have all said they would release funds either after 60/90 days or with a fee, but Icesave offered neither of these options. I also understand Icesave is a Icelandic bank and may have different rules to the UK banks, any advice at this stage would be very helpful, as we dont know where to turn.

I feel like they have ripped our dreams from under us.

Hang on, you put your money into a fixed term account to get a good interest rate - and now you are saying that what you did by clear choice, is not fair, and that Icesave have personally ripped your dreams out from under you, and left you with a broken heart.

That's pretty rich - you knew what you were doing, stop trying to blame someone else.

Having said that, I am sure that your Bank would probably give you a bridging loan, based on your savings, although they will probably not be particularly competitive interest rate wise. Have you approached them?

Come on, 4 different high street banks said even though your not supposed to close your account before hand they would have all said yes, propbably with a fee or a 60/90 day. What difference does my piddely savings make to a huge company like Icesave. When I first called customer services of Icesave they told me it would not be a problem if I wrote stateing my reason. And I think I am like a lot of small savers who all think in an emergency you WOULD be able to retreive your money before the due date. A bit of human kindness would not have gone a miss.

But thanks for the advice about my bank, I can go chat with them and they may help out with a bridging loan.

I still think Icesave is Mean.!!

Hi gg,

Read the terms and conditions through very carefully.I would have expected that the early withdrawl of funds would incur a hefty penalty or even full loss of interest.It would be surprising if there was no access to those funds whatsoever.

If not, all you can do is try to write a pleading letter to Customer Services explaining the situation and asking for a concession on the basis that other institutions offer a withdrawal facilty in extreme circumstances.

Icesave started out well in my book but following the scare stories about Icelandic Banks I withdrew my funds and your story shows the attractive rates come with a cost at times.

Wow,the other advice was pretty hard hitting. .......lump it basically.

Best of luck with your venture.

Hi Backfoot

I did read the Terms and Conditions ( after I had put my savings with them), Im not a saver as a rule, never had anything to save before. My mum has just called me to say she has just heard a lady on the Radio asking about getting her savings out of an Icesave fixed account before the 12 months is up and she was told no. Icesave dont release funds before hand, whatever the reason.

UK banks are more accomadating but Iceland bank, no chance. I did write a pleading letter to them and expected to forfite all of the interest which had accumilated, but the answer was still no.

I think its a case of not doing my research before I jumped in, a lesson learned, but out of the many people I have spoken to on the matter, there are more people suprised at the outcome, so many are shocked at the fact that you really can't get to your saving should you need to.

Hi gg,

Well I am sorry to hear about that.Since I wrote ,I checked out a few banks/bs and the majority do offer withdrawls involving 90 or 180 days loss of gross interest.

The terms and conditions are what they are but at the very least you have alerted some other customers to the pitfalls of the ICESAVE product. It's flexibilty isn't as good as its rate.

Backfoot,

do keep up dear, my advice was not 'lump it' I said that there was an opportunity to use the savings as collateral for a bridging loan. gg already said that she had written a letter to icesave explaining the position, and that the response had been negative.

What I didn't see from you was anything constructive, just a 'I feel your pain' message. However you do make a good point that Icesave are pretty robust in their outlook with regard to keeping the money for the full term.

What I suggest to gg is that you write to the CEO of icesave, this is usually more effective than the customer service route.

Skywalker - not walking in the sky, just stumbling around in the mud of reality

Skywalker:

Hang on, you put your money into a fixed term account to get a good interest rate - and now you are saying that what you did by clear choice, is not fair, and that Icesave have personally ripped your dreams out from under you, and left you with a broken heart.

That's pretty rich - you knew what you were doing, stop trying to blame someone else.

Me keep up.....lol !!! I see what you mean now, the above was really helpful and just what the OP wanted to hear. Mmmmm.Then you trump my suggestion of writing in, to the CEO rather than Customer Services.Brilliant,you sure have got me there.

;-)

Backfoot,

if you bothered to read the original post in its entirety, you would have noticed that gg already tried the begging letter to icesave, therefore your suggestion was pointless. I at least made an attempt at a solution via the bridging loan option.

Skywalker - trying to suggest remedies, not sharing your pain

Thank you both for your advice it was much appreciated. I really think it is fair to say that if I had chosen a Fixed Rate with a UK bank we would not be having this conversation. The desision was made by a senior member, I dont know if this means it was made by old george who been there 35 yrs, but his decision was final

and I was told so in a very patronising letter.

I dont think it is really worth persuing Icesave as they are firm on there terms. Im not happy about it and it has put me in a pickle if I want to carry on with the purchase of the property. But its a lesson learned, I thought like with UK banks I could write a nice letter, be polite and with good reason have my savings back in my current account.

I had my advice from both of you so lets leave it there, please stop taking chunks out of each other.

Have a nice weekend.

At the end of the day its setout from the start, buying a home abroad isnt really an emergency. What if it was the other way around and they wanted to close your account but you didnt want it to as you were getting good intrest.

What would you do...