A&L Premier Direct Account - Help

zudecke

Are Halifax good though?

And for the sake of reliable FP, is it really worth opening and upkeeping an FD account?

apt

With FD you are also getting £100 for opening the account and a free £250 overdraft.

zudecke

Yeah.. FD sound awesome TBH.. But might struggle to get 1500 in p/m.

zudecke

What if i my wages amount to 1500, but a substantial amount is gone after a couple of days on expenses?

Baldur

zudecke wrote: »

Are Halifax good though?

Compared with A&L/Santander, they certainly are.

zudecke

need a free acc with an interest free OD of about 250. WIll be paying in 1350 p/m. Can't find anything .

zudecke

blueberrypie wrote: »

...except that A&L fails on the good online banking, and the faster payments, and on the customer support.

In your position, I'd open two accounts: a Halifax Reward Account, and a First Direct current account*. I'd get my wages paid into Halifax, then transfer them to FD. That way I'd be getting the benefit of the £5/month Reward, plus the excellent customer service and FP implementation of FD.

FD also gives you (subject to status) a £500 OD, of which the first £250 is free (i.e. no interest).

(*For the FD account, there's a funding requirement of £1500/month, or a monthly fee applies. Since your wages don't quite cover that, you could either transfer a bit of money back to Halifax and then back to FD again, or you could open one of their other accounts which causes the First Account fee to be waived - there's no need to leave more than £1 in them.)

FD don't have any other accounts other than their 1st account, as far as I can see.

zudecke

Oh right.. I spoke to FD and they said if I take out a savings account I can waive the fee for having the 1st account.

But this way I won't get the 100 bonus for joining lol. So essentially no interest lol.

Also, can anyone explain this:

"a completely interest free £250 overdraft*** to help you manage your money. An arrangement fee may apply if you request an overdraft more than once every six months. Overdrafts above £250 will be charged at 15.9% EAR variable"

Does that mean everytime I go like +£1 into the £250 OD, I may be charged if I do it more than every 6 months!??

YorkshireBoy

zudecke wrote: »

But this way I won't get the 100 bonus for joining lol.

You possibly (probably?) won't get the £100 because your salary/income doesn't deliver a £1,500 net credit each month.

So get yourself referred for it instead and pocket £25 or so. See the referrals board.

Does that mean everytime I go like +£1 into the £250 OD, I may be charged if I do it more than every 6 months!??

No. It means if you request an overdraft over and above that already granted, whether it be 'formal' (ie "can I increase from £250 to £500 please?") or 'informal' (ie a direct debit is presented and you don't have sufficient funds to meet it).

zudecke

Ok, gotcha.

Thanks for the referrals tip !