The thing about useful stuff is: Icesave accounts have been frozen

Icesave accounts have been frozen Tuesday, October 07, 2008

Following the nationalisation of Iceland's second largest bank, Landsbanki, its' UK internet banking arm which has the unfortunate name of Icesave has frozen all activity on accounts.

Its' home page has the simple and concise message

We are not currently processing any deposits or any withdrawal requests through our Icesave internet accounts. We apologise for any inconvenience this may cause our customers. We hope to provide you with more information shortly.

The internet bank is covered by the UK Deposit Protection Scheme, which protects each customer for up to £50,000 [changed from £35,000 today].

For the superstitious amongst you, the jinx of Newcastle appears to have struck again - Icesave's contact details indicate that it is the location of their processing centre, as well as being home to Northern Rock. Worryingly, whilst they disagree on the location of the postcode given for Icesave of NE28 5AL (Microsoft can't even find that postcode!), Google maps suggest the Bank is in the middle of a housing estate near Wallsend.

On a related note, some funny emails doing the rounds on several themes related to the crisis

Mums in trouble with their families for going to Iceland, a twist on the foodstore slogan, with Fathers quoted as saying they always knew its' business model was on slippery ground
Mock-ups of queues forming outside Iceland stores as shoppers panic about its' possible collapse
Questions in banking circles about why no-one realised their was something fishy about Iceland and whether their Govt can revert to any slush funds