What if Your Bank Fails - FDIC Banks at Risk List - How to Protect Your Money

Is your bank ready to fail, tying up your funds or even the money your family or business uses to survive in these hard times? Stay ahead of the game and keep tabs on the financial health of your bank, be proactive to avoid pain, disappointment, anger and frustration. There are limitations, of sorts, on the FDIC insurance and while no depositor has even lost money within the scope of the FDIC regulations, it is still wise for you to totally understand how much of your money is insured. It is also important to know, under what conditions, your money could possibly NOT be insured. We prepared, be aware.  You may have no public pre warning if your bank is in trouble.  In July of 2008 the annual Seattle fireworks extravaganza was again sponsored, after many years, by the prominent bank in Washington State. Now that bank is GONE. Who would have ever thought that could or would happen.

Be well aware of the following things and make sure you check the news feed at the bottom of this article for the latest info on FDIC actions on failed or failing banks.

Deposits are only insured for each depositor up to US$100,000. That means you cannot open multiple accounts over which you have control and be insured for more than $100,000. For IRA accounts the insured amount is $250,000 per IRA account.

Depositors with Indymac Bank that have more than $100,000 will first get back $100,000. Then in a few days they will receive a pre payment in the amount of 50% of the value of any deposit amount over $100,000. Whether or not they recover the balance of their uninsured deposits depends on what the FDIC gets when they sell the assets of the bank.

Do NOT have more than one account per bank over which you have control. In fact it would be best not to have multiple accounts in the same bank system. In other words, do not have accounts in Key Bank in three branches in the same city. Best to go to a complete separate banking entity if you are fortunate enough to have more than $100,000 you need to keep in the bank.

The first thing that has happened to IndyMac Bank depositors is that they have found that until Monday customers with funds in the bank were limited to taking out money via ATM automated teller machines over the weekend, debit card transactions or checks. That limits the funds they may remove. This is critical for those with accounts over the $100,000 insured limit.

As is usual, online banking is down and not operating until the bank reopens on Monday under FDIC management. Customers with deposit amounts uninsured will need to file a claim on Monday with the FDIC at the bank.

Just think, if they had kept separate accounts in other banks they would not be worrying tonight about their money.

What are the things you need to watch about your own bank? What things could have warned Indymac Bank customers a serious problem was about to occur.

IndyMac Bank spent the last two weeks trying to reassure depositors that it was not near default. They told there depositors everything was okay and that their money was safe. That was the truth, for customers whose entire depositinsured FDIC. balance is by the

In addition, earlier this week, on Monday IndyMac Bank announced it had stopped accepting new loan submissions and planned to slash 3,800 jobs, or more than half of its work force -- the largest employee cuts in company history.

When that was announced on Monday any deposits over the insured amount should have been removed by the depositors as soon as possible.

The final warning was when a prominent politician called on the government to step in on Wednesday to prevent the bank from going in default. That was the last red flag but by then the number of depositors demanding money back was too large at one time for the bank to meet.

Be aware of this occurance and what the depositors of Indymac Bank should have seen in order to protect any uninsured amounts of money. For those customers with amounts insured by the FDIC they have nothing to worry about. They can be thankful the FDIC system is there to protect their money.