Leaving FirstDirect for £100

bigstoo

I opened my FD 1st Account around 6 months ago to receive the £100 joining incentive.

I never actually "moved" to FD, I just changed the destination of my salary and then tranferred my salary back out to my "real" account on the day it goes in.

As promised, the £100 joining incentive was credited to my account after 3 or so months of my salary going in.

As I say, I'm almost at the 6 month mark (6 salary payments have gone in - I'm going to wait until 7 have gone in just to be safe) so soon I'll be closing to collect my other £100.

Thing is, what do I say when they ask why I'm closing? If I say, "I'm leaving because you'll give me £100," am I breaking the T&C's? As they say they'll give you £100 if you aren't happy with them.

Has anyone successfully received their second £100? What did you tell them?

brookerbabyisababy

When did you specifically receive the joining incentive from them? They say within 28 days. But I still haven't received it as yet. I don't intend to leave because I actually like them. But they should give me the joining incentive?

chinbergs

Good for you bigstoo - I was thinking of taking up the offer too.

Why don't you say you liked the service but you've realised you want a current account which pays a good rate of interest, so you're going to go to Alliance & Leicester which pays 8.5% - they can't really argue with that.

Horace

I cannot understand why anyone would want to leave First Direct - they're fab.

sdooley

Alliance & Leicester service is horrible

ajtaylor_2

Yes, Alliance & Leicester customer service is horrible. As is their internet banking.

I've just had 2 shouting matches on the phone with them, over the fact that they deny having received our 3 complaint letters, despite having written a stock letter back!

I currently have 4 different balances shown to me at A&L - my "balance", my "available balance", my "running balance" and a completely different balance that you get when you phone up. How the hell is a customer supposed to know how much money is in their account at any one time - today, my balances vary by more than £260!

nzseries1

Horace wrote: »

I cannot understand why anyone would want to leave First Direct - they're fab.

First Direct's Internet Banking is awful. Confusing and ugly.
No interest on credit balances.
No automated way of changing your address online. Come on, this is the 21st century!!
Secure Message service is always "unavailable". I have never been able to send a successful Secure Message. And they don't tell you it's unavailable until after you type your message out. Unacceptable.

Those are the reasons I'll be using when I leave them in 4 months time.

Oh, I forgot to add, it's been 6 weeks and I still don't have my £100 joining bonus. I won't bank with a bank who you have to fight with to get the clearly advertised benefits. As I understand the money is supposed to go in 28 days after your first salary payment.

Sun

I received my joining incentive in 14 days after 3rd salary deposit. So, no complaints here.

I agree internet banking is troublesome, esp:

1) Cannot delete payees
2) "Request cannot be processed" message appear quite often while transferring money between accounts

NMB

FirstDirect will not allow me to transfer money over to certain account numbers/sort codes - mainly those for which they have already set up 'helpful' categories such as utilities.

If I chose to pay my gas bill by entering the account number/sort code the bill tells me to, I should be able to. How do I know if the ones First Direct have picked apply to my tarrif?

If I tell my bank to pay my money to a certain account number/sort code I expect my bank to do it without delay - instead First Direct tell me I cannot do this and to pick a payee that may or may not be correct.

As soon as I am able to collect £100 I'll be off to a bank that allows me spend my money how I choose.


So, as I already have an A+L account, the next best account to try appears to be HSBC via quidco for £50?

TighterThanTwoCoatsOfPain

nzseries1 wrote: »

First Direct's Internet Banking is awful. Confusing and ugly.

!!!!!!! I would rank it one of the best i have used!

nzseries1 wrote: »

No interest on credit balances.

They will quite openly suggest to you not to use the current account to keep lots of cash it. Infact they are the only back who have actively gone out of their way to make my money work for me

nzseries1 wrote: »

No automated way of changing your address online. Come on, this is the 21st century!!

I guess most people dont move house every 5 mins, and are more than happy to do it over the phone once through security *unlike many which will only accept in writing*. Oh yeah, and any time of the day of night you are through in perhaps 5 seconds to a UK call centre

nzseries1 wrote: »

Secure Message service is always "unavailable". I have never been able to send a successful Secure Message. And they don't tell you it's unavailable until after you type your message out. Unacceptable.

Perhaps your internet is timing out? I use it regularly and have NEVER had it happen in 8 years.

I have had no issues in setting up bank transfers to institutions which appear in the list.

And last but not least, they are the only bank I have managed to get to handle standing orders which run on any pattern i can dream up. Getting paid 4 weekly 13 times a year is a pain in the !!! if you want to transfer funds between accounts as they credit, but FD handle without issue.

You may have guessed, i'm one of the many FD fanboys around who would not move to anywhere else for a £100, least of all the clowns at A&L!

:beer:

bigstoo

brookerbabyisababy wrote:

When did you specifically receive the joining incentive from them? They say within 28 days. But I still haven't received it as yet. I don't intend to leave because I actually like them. But they should give me the joining incentive?

I received the first £100 the day after my 2nd salary payment went in. Although the T&Cs say they'll pay it after 3 months payments have gone in.

chinbergs wrote:

Why don't you say you liked the service but you've realised you want a current account which pays a good rate of interest, so you're going to go to Alliance & Leicester which pays 8.5% - they can't really argue with that.

They could argue that I knew full well what the interest rate would be when I joined. The £100 leaving payment is for people who are "not satisfied with their service". I'm concerned that if I say their service is second-to-none (which in my experience it is) they'll tell me I'm not eligable for the £100.

Horace wrote:

I cannot understand why anyone would want to leave First Direct - they're fab.

Three words: One... Hundred... Pounds.
That's a lot of money to me. Yes, FD probably have the best customer service of any bank I have used, but I just don't think that difference is worth £100. Especially as I call the bank maybe once a year. Everything I need to do I can do online.

sdooley wrote:

Alliance & Leicester service is horrible

Probably. I can't say I've had any problems wth them myself though. They are as good, if not better, as most of the other high street banks. What's important to me is the fact they are paying a high interest on my current account.

Alx_B wrote:

I guess as long as you can come up with a credible reason why you're leaving for another bank there's not a lot they can do, except hand over the cash, hopefully.

Exactly. I want to make sure I can come up with a credible reason. I'm not sure the interest rate (which I knew when I joined) is one. What I'm looking for is someone who has actually received the £100 and what they said.
I'm sure FD are going to be perfectly fair, but at the end of the day £100 is a lot of money to lose out on because I said the wrong thing.