With the pound tanking im thinking of setting up a Euro savings account, with the credit crunch who is the safest/best banks to deal with ?

Don't deal with Deutsch Bank, i have an account with them and the rumour hear is that they might be badly exposed to the sub prime chaos in the US.

At least the German government insures 100000 Euros.

I've been looking into this. Northern Rock is now as safe a government bonds. Their account in Guernsey offers 4.3% gross which is actually above base rate.

If you have a relative in Ireland, there they are offering 5%!!! You need a residential address there unfortunately.

http://www.northernrock-guernsey.co.gg/

http://www.northernrock-ireland.ie/

JP

Nationwide International have a couple:

http://www.nationwideinternational.com/acc...euro_glance.htm

The Euro Tracker Premium looks a particularly good deal.

I'm also considering switching my Euro funds into Northern Rock Guernsey. It's (currently) the only offshore bank with any guarantee. The other offshore banks don't even have the standard £35K FSA guarantee, but NR is covered by the UK Treasury unlimited guarantee.

IF YOU HAVE A HALIFAX UK ACCOUNT ,YOU NEED TO OPEN A HALIFAX BANCO HISPANIA ACCOUNT ,EASY TO DO THEY SPEAK ENGLISH AND YOU GET FREE TRANSFERS BETWEEN ACOUNTS AT A GOOD EXCHANGE RATE, GOOD WAY TO PLAY THE CURRENCY MARKET

Your call, but I wouldn't do it if my future spending would be in pounds. Market can humiliate a lot if this is a speculative attempt to safeguard your personal wealth: at the end of day the pound wouldn't be where it is now if everyone thought of it going down to 1:1 against EUR. Also, take into account trasnaction costs - if you are only doing a scrap (not millions), English banks will rape you.

I'm not telling that GBPEUR won't go down any more, but it has retreated quite a lot since it all started last summer. Another interesting thing: can you please rank DOW, FTSE100 and DAX Index in how they have performed this year and explain? (My guess: the market is not sentimental and doesn't look into rear mirrors). It was just moments ago that a German state of North Rhine-Westphalia said they'd guarantee up to 5bn of WestLB's liabilities. Why do so many believe in EUR is beyond me. I can personally see quite a lot of crap unfolding in Germany, let alone the strain between various Eurozone species regarding the ECB's policy that can eventually destroy Euro as such and economic troubles in Ireland, France, Spain, Portugal, Italy as opposed to Germany, Denmark or the Netherlands...

Useful post and i tend to agree. I was looking at HSBC international accounts but in the end you are still gambling. If you are eventually going to use your money to buy a house and houses are falling then no real need to worry.

Ditto.

Can I ask a dumb question please:

When you transfer cash between accounts I assume they take their usuall cut like when you buy holiday currency ?

ie. You can buy a Euro for 1.30, but when you sell a Euro you only get 1.20 ?

Just wanting to check. I don't think I am going to go down the route anyway. As has been stated before just speculating all your savings on the strength of the Euro. Far from a guaranteed thing IMO...........

Yes, but if you're changing a large sum it pays to get a special quotation from your bank. I think, from memory, I paid 0.8% when I bought my Euros last year, standard commission would have been 2 or 3%.

With regard to currency speculation, it can be a risky business and it's probably safest to hold the currency that you will need to spend. In my case though, I will be spending both EUR & GBP, so I'm holding both.

Cheers for that. As you say keeping cash in the currency you will be using makes the most sense. Anything else is speculation. As we all know that can go both ways.

There is always the exception to the rule though, this little chap may buy you a paper clip if you're lucky.

I appreciate your post offering some balance but I really don't think the problems in the Eurozone are in the same order(s) of magnitude as the problems faced by the Americans and British. Also the Eurozone problems are long term, entrenched and well understood.

I am sure the UK is in a far, far bigger pickle than the US - at the end of the day, the US has lots of land, big tourism and a huge ocean of intellectual property. Here in the U.K. we have Wetherspoons and Estate Agents.

I have a really bad feeling about GBP - I know my experience of inflation is at least 10%. At least the Euros are honest about their inflation.

So, I think the Euro can go a lot higher than the pound over the medium term - 3 years I reckon.

Fidelity Euro Money Market

Has anyone used the above fund? I was thinking of using this one.

I have plotted* some trend lines on euro vs £ on the NI forum if anyones interested:

http://www.housepricecrash.co.uk/forum/ind...15&start=15

Whilst I do not think there is an end to euro strength in the very short term, I think there will be a correction of sorts before the years out - just MHO of course.

*edit - make that 'drawn lines using paint shop'