First Direct - £100 for joining

happy_chick_3

Has anyone joined up and taken up this offer? I'm looking into it and would like to hear what their like as a bank and whether the offer really is too good to be true?

penrhyn

Carslberg don't do banking, but if they did it would be First Direct.
Banked with them for 15 years with never a cross word.
But be aware of the possible charges if you pay less than £1500 (I think) a month, and only have one account.

First Direct is part of the Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation.

KiKi

Lots of people did this offer and got the £100, myself included.

Fantastic bank; you actually get to speak to a real person and not wait in a queue pressing numbers. Never, ever had a problem with them, and they are tops for customer service.

One potential downside with FD is that there are some people on here who feel their internet banking isn't as intelligent as other institutions, but I personally have had no problems with it, and it does everything that you need a bank account to do. If there's something you can't do on the site (as some people have said they can't) then you just call them.

I've never been so pleased to have made a switch to them.

HTH

KiKi

molar

I'm very pleased with them so far and can only reiterate what everyone else has said.

I didn't get my £100 when I should have done but had it credited to my account within an hour of enquiring about it (5pm on a Friday night!).

If you are still considering them take a look at the FD thread on the Referrers Board.
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=742377

There are lots of 5* FD reviews to read on Ciao. http://www.ciao.co.uk/First_Direct__55385

happy_chick_3

thanks everyone - I think I'll go ahead and do it - £100 is £100 after all!

Bunk

How exactly do you become eligible for the £100? Do I have to pay in £1500 once and I qualify?

I've just joined this week and am very pleased so far. The only minor critisim is that HSBC's internet banking (from whom I am switching) is, surprisingly, much nicer to use than First Direct's.

Also, another fact people who are thinking of joining FD might not be aware of is that you don't pay the £10 fee in the first six months of joining regardless of whether you pay in £1500 a month or have another one of their products.

Cheers!

puddings_2

To qualify you must:
1) Be a new customer
2) Open a new account which should be used as your primary current account, (1st direct will help you transfer your direct debits and standing orders over if you ask them to)
3) Receive a credit of at least £1500 every month for 6 months or more
4) Between 6 and 12 months, find reason to be dissatisfied with the service and then close the account.
5) If you have also opened any additional first direct accounts, then they must be closed also.

In theory: you will receive your first £100 when regular credits start to be deposited and your second £100 when you close the account.
In practice: you might not receive the first £100 unless you phone them and remind them about it and you might not receive your second £100 unless you phone them a few times and argue with them quite a lot!

I didn't receive my second £100 when the account was closed, so I phoned them a few times and was promised phone calls back from the account closures team (which never happened) so in the end I wrote formally to them and this morning (HOORAY!) i received their agreement that I had indeed satisfied all of the criterea under their service agreement and would get a cheque in the next few days :-)

---

I only joined 1stD so that I could get the £200, and I found reason to complain only because I *had* to. My honest opinion of the bank is that they are very good, it's nice to be able to talk to a human being sometimes.

If you are genuinely looking to change banks then 1stD is a good choice, although if you deal in a lot of cash deposits rather than electronic deposits then a telephone bank probably isn't the right choice for you.

Bunk

Thanks, puddings.

Concerning the £100 for joining, does the £1500 have to be in one deposit or can it be made up of, say, £1000 salary and £500 from an account transfer? I asked a lady at FD about the exact criteria and she said it had to be salary/income of £1500 (i.e. a single BACS payment) for 3 months to be eligible though I suspect she was just reading it off their website and may not be totally correct.

Sorry if this question has been asked before on these forums!

Cheers.

nzseries1

I got told I had to transfer my standing orders and direct debits in order to receive my £100. This I did, and the £100 was in my account about 2.5 months after I opened the account.

I've read on other posts that the £1500 needs to be a salary payment, and that they can tell the difference between a salary payment and a regular BACS transfer. Can it be £1000 salary and £500 BACS? I don't know, but I'd say not likely.