£100 signup bonus scam by First Direct??

cordelia0507

Approx. 2 weeks ago after reading a post here, I went to the First Direct website in order to investigate possibility of opening an account with them.

To my delight, the first thing I saw on the LANDING page was an offer saying "Open an account with us, have your salary of >£1500 paid into the account, and we will immediately pay you a bonus of £100 for switching to us" (there was also some promises about another £100 if you want to leave First Direct after 6 months... )

I thought I might as well make the change if this generous offer was on the table. I applied for the account.

The paperwork has now arrived. But there is no more talk of a £100 bonus. Being fairly cynical about marketing offers, I decided to verify the scheme with their customer service, since I had another reason to call them anyway.

The Scottish girl in customer service quite bluntly told me something about delays, people not getting the £100 but having to "chase" it. She mentioned something about a 28 day waiting period which was news to me. In fact I explicitly remember the expression "immediately" being used (immediately after having your salary paid in you will recieve this bonus).

Today I needed to call FD back again due to some problems logging on to the online service. I again enquired about the £100 bonus - as I was interested to hear if I get yet another different story...

This time I was told that there is a 3 month waiting period to recieve the money.. !

At this point it became clear to me that First Direct had claimed more than it could/would/intended to keep in regards to the £100 bonus...

The story I was now being told is simply NOT the same that was on the website 2 weeks ago, luring me to sign up with FD.

It seems I've been taken in by a promise that won't be delivered on! It seems they intentionally or unintentionally lied about the offer, and wasted my time to boot. This kind of thing drives me crazy. I can't stand "generous" offers that were not seriously intended.

Has anybody got any experience / news about First Direct and this offer?

Cordelia

evi3000

I have just received my incentive (and immediately paid it onto my offset mortgae - but that's another story!) I am under the impression that if you open an account and have your wages paid in as well as changing your standing orders and direct debits you will get the money.
I sent an email 2 days ago requesting info as to where my incentive was, I received a response within 2 hours telling me that I would receive it within 28 days but it only took 2 days.
I have no recollection of seeing the word "immediate". I have had accounts with numerous banks - Barclays, Alliance & Leicester, The One Account and I have to say that First Direct is by far the best (obviously, my opinion).
The only people I've heard complain about the incentive is people who are trying to make £100 and not move their banking)

Scousebird_2

evi3000 wrote: »

I have just received my incentive (and immediately paid it onto my offset mortgae - but that's another story!) I am under the impression that if you open an account and have your wages paid in as well as changing your standing orders and direct debits you will get the money.
I sent an email 2 days ago requesting info as to where my incentive was, I received a response within 2 hours telling me that I would receive it within 28 days but it only took 2 days.
I have no recollection of seeing the word "immediate". I have had accounts with numerous banks - Barclays, Alliance & Leicester, The One Account and I have to say that First Direct is by far the best (obviously, my opinion).
The only people I've heard complain about the incentive is people who are trying to make £100 and not move their banking)

I agree with what you say there.

cordelia0507

Thanks Evie for the update. I don't intend to take advantage of the offer only for the bonus. I fully intend to use the service as my main account.

On the other hand, First Direct DID promise me £100 and it WAS definitely a factor in my decision to change accounts.

If they will not honour their promises I wouldn't want to bank with them... or go to the trouble of changing my account over.

So how long was it between you starting up the account, having your first salary paid in and actually recieving the bonus?

My issue is this: I tend to forget about this type of thing, and I can't stand chasing money in this way.... I want to KNOW that I will get it before I forget all about it and never end up claimining it (which I suspect may be partly what FD hopes for...)

evi3000

I waited about 3 months. I did forget but only for a little while but as soon as I contacted them they paid (almost) immediately. May I suggest you make a note on your calendar/mobile/agenda. I often do this with Quidco and other money related things as I am determined not to lose out.

evi3000

LittleVoice

cordelia0507 wrote: »

Thanks Evie for the update. I don't intend to take advantage of the offer only for the bonus. I fully intend to use the service as my main account.

On the other hand, First Direct DID promise me £100 and it WAS definitely a factor in my decision to change accounts.

If they will not honour their promises I wouldn't want to bank with them... or go to the trouble of changing my account over.

So how long was it between you starting up the account, having your first salary paid in and actually recieving the bonus?

My issue is this: I tend to forget about this type of thing, and I can't stand chasing money in this way.... I want to KNOW that I will get it before I forget all about it and never end up claimining it (which I suspect may be partly what FD hopes for...)

I confess to not knowing the full terms of the FD offer; however an earlier poster (Scousebird) mentioned changing SOs and DDs and this is a common if not ubiquitous requirement to achieve these kinds of incentives.

You mention having your salary paid in and wanting to use it as your main bank account but have you demonstrated to them that it will be your main account by actually allowing bank-to-bank communications to get your SOs and DDs switched? If you haven't and that is one of their requirements then at the moment it would appear you will not be eligible for the £100 bonus.

As I said at the beginning, I do not know the terms of the FD offer but suggest you check that part of the deal. You will probably also find that another MSE-er will come along and correct me or confirm that FD do have this term.

Turtle

Not sure about this offer but you wont beat FD for service.

YorkshireBoy

LittleVoice wrote: »

I confess to not knowing the full terms of the FD offer; however an earlier poster (Scousebird) mentioned changing SOs and DDs and this is a common if not ubiquitous requirement to achieve these kinds of incentives.

The switching of DD's & SO's wasn't required LV.

The ONLY requirement was to pay in your salary/income of more than £1,500 per month within x months of account opening.

The £100 was (supposed* to be) paid within 28 days of your first salary deposit (OP has got it totally wrong when he said "immediately").

The T&C's of the offer were posted on this site back in January/February and there were several threads running at the time - and since - (if the OP would care to search back for them).


* Many of us had to chase them, both for the £100 and the subsequent 3 x £50 referral incentive payments.

cordelia0507

Thanks for clarifying this!
I didn't stop to save the details of the offer when I signed up, so was confused about the exact details.

Seems like Yorkshireboy has his facts straight.
It also sounds like FD HAS in fact paid people this bonus which would indicate that it is not a scam. This is re-assuring for me.

But why do I get the impression that people on the forum side with the bank and not with me? Like I said, I just want to make sure FD lives up to their side of this deal - as I am intending to.

Am I really the only one here who is suspicious towards banks (not exactly charity institutions...), or who hates phoney marketing offers that you have to chase to get, once you signed up with the company, bought their product or whatever.

jetfighter

I had to chase it up but I did get my £100.

Morty_007

cordelia0507 wrote: »

But why do I get the impression that people on the forum side with the bank and not with me?

Because FD didn't do anything wrong?