Two months ago, I started looking into savings accounts with a better return than the promising-turned-dismal AEX Index-coupled account I had. This was for money my husband and I didn't need right away, but didn't want to risk. We'd chosen our bank's Amsterdam Exchange Index account two years ago, when it was averaging 4.5% yearly interest. And that's what we averaged the first year on money we set aside for six months at a time (in six equal monthly units to spread risk).

But we earned nothing in the next nine months. Nada. Zip. On the upside, we didn't lose anything, either; our money was not invested in the AEX, just tied to it for interest return. But zero return was a lot poorer than the 2.4% our regular savings account had given us. Time to look for something new.

Enter Icesave. With interest rates over 5% on savings accounts, it looked great. Actually, it looked too good to be true. How could Icesave offer such high returns when other banks weren't? As I read further, I learned that the government of Iceland was the guarantor for the first € 20,000; the Dutch government (we live in Holland) would step up for the next € 20,000. There was a lot of noise on different fora about Iceland's solvency. Could tiny Iceland actually repay all of Icesave's clients if Landsbanki, the bank behind Icesave, went broke? And would they begin with us Dutchies if they couldn't? I doubted it.

My husband and I are generally aggressive with our money; we're young and we believe in the economy and the robustness of long-term investing. And all that fine print about what happens when big banks go bust? It doesn't really matter, does it, because that never happens. Right?

And yet I couldn't shake a sense of foreboding, though I'm no financial eagle. I don't follow the news; I know only investing basics. I had no tangible reason for my suspicion. I just had . . . a feeling. In the end, I chose to stick with our stolid Dutch bank, opening a quarterly account with a 3.4% return. Not as spectacular as 5.2%, and the money has to be parked for at least three months to earn it, but better than our then-current 2.4%--and it felt safer.

And I'm feeling pretty clam-happy about it now.