Warning - Savers beware

The FSA protection for savers, as increased by Alistair Darling in the wake of Northern Rock relates only to one banking licence

HSBC for example also owns First Direct so £35,000 between the two is okay, safe, guaranteed but if you have £35,000 in each bank then compensation and guarantee is limited to £35,000 since, it is reported, HSBC has only one banking licence

So, split savings between unrelated banks - in the above situation put £35,000 in to say Barclays, or Co-op or another totally unrelated bank