Avoid First Direct - They are gonna charge all customers £10!

Stormy

JD554 wrote:

According to the new terms & conditions (pdf document), or follow the "*Important Information: Our Bank Account - from 1 May 2007" link on this page of First Direct's website, you can still have free banking if you have a savings account.

So if the hassle of changing accounts is too much, open a First Direct savings account, deposit £1 and continue to have free banking.

Its much, much easier than you think. When I moved my Current account to Nationwide they sent me ALL the paperwork to move DD's etc etc. It was a breeze. I am going to call FD later and close all my accounts, I just emptied all my remaining money out of there yesterday.

When they ask me why I am closing my account I will so I believe its WRONG to charge fullstop. No one should have to pay for a bank to hold their money IMO. HSBC of all banks are making MASSIVE profits as it is. Pure greed.

Even if you can avoid the charges levied by FD I would seriously consider moving banks just to send FD a strong message. Nationwide customer service for me has been JUST as good as FD ever was. They have much more competitive products, pay decent rates of interest on current account balances and have a much, much better Internet banking setup.

Goodbye FD.

Mike

cheggers

May be FD shot themselves in the foot with the £25 incentives to open a bank account. Loads of people opened accounts just for the £25 and then have done very little with the accounts. Perhaps they just want to get people using there bank accounts and other products.

Still don't agree with what they are doing. Long since closed my FD account and took the £200 I made from them elsewhere.

digp

fallen121 wrote:

Secondly, we have people who are transferring 1p a month or whatever into a savings account. They will be ok for a while, until First Direct wise up that all these Standing Orders are costing money and introduce a threshold - like £10.

Unless they do auditing of accounts they will not cotton on prob for some time to this or other tricks.

scaldyflash

Bye bye First Direct, after TWENTY years with HSBC (Midland/First Direct) I am leaving. I pay in more than £1.500 per month and I have several "products" with them so I would never pay the £10 per month but I am disgusted with them. I have had excellent service from their employees throughout the years and I really feel sorry for the ordinary employees but I cannot stay with a bank which penalises the poor in this way particularly considering their obscene profits. Greed total greed. GOOD RIDDANCE

Phoenix79_2

scaldyflash wrote:

Bye bye First Direct, after TWENTY years with HSBC (Midland/First Direct) I am leaving. I pay in more than £1.500 per month and I have several "products" with them so I would never pay the £10 per month but I am disgusted with them. I have had excellent service from their employees throughout the years and I really feel sorry for the ordinary employees but I cannot stay with a bank which penalises the poor in this way particularly considering their obscene profits. Greed total greed. GOOD RIDDANCE

Haven't you ever heard of paying for a quality service? Its hardly 'penalising the poor' as people have a choice of where they bank. FD have given plenty of notice to the customers.

Do you write letters to BMW or Mercedes stating that they are 'penalising the poor' because their products cost more than Kia or Hyundai? In this day and age you have to pay for a better product. FD is generally seen as one of the best in their field.

fallen121

What I think is fairly amusing is that the CEO claims that they are introducing charges to reduce the number of dormant accounts.

If you don't meet their income criteria, then the best way to avoid the charges is to open........a dormant savings account!

M_Thomson

scaldyflash wrote:

Bye bye First Direct, after TWENTY years with HSBC (Midland/First Direct) I am leaving. I pay in more than £1.500 per month and I have several "products" with them so I would never pay the £10 per month but I am disgusted with them. I have had excellent service from their employees throughout the years and I really feel sorry for the ordinary employees but I cannot stay with a bank which penalises the poor in this way particularly considering their obscene profits. Greed total greed. GOOD RIDDANCE

Very OTT I think, considering that First Direct have always had a high credit score criteria, and does not on the whole have a lot of low income customers.

scaldyflash

Phoenix79 wrote:

Haven't you ever heard of paying for a quality service? Its hardly 'penalising the poor' as people have a choice of where they bank. FD have given plenty of notice to the customers.

Do you write letters to BMW or Mercedes stating that they are 'penalising the poor' because their products cost more than Kia or Hyundai? In this day and age you have to pay for a better product. FD is generally seen as one of the best in their field.

Yes they have given plenty of notice (But not to me, I heard from LBC)

I have never driven a Mercedes or a BMW because I can't afford to, however I can afford to drive a car (luckily) that does not mean that I have to pay vauxhall every month just because I bought one of their cars ! I give all my money to First Direct every month so that they can invest it as they see fit. By doing so they make about 7 BILLION pounds per year. I do not want to pay them to make money from them having my money and I certainly do not want them taking money from the poorest people in society they are GREEDY GREEDY GREEDY and anyone who supports them in what they are proposing is just as bad as them.

karatedragon

i wonder when people will get bored with moaning about first direct?

scope

karatedragon wrote:

i wonder when people will get bored with moaning about first direct?

When the other banks catch on and see another source of income. ;-)