Easy £25 loophole Discussion Area

xbox

on the site they have a "recommend us" section.

Same T&C, they send you three postcards to give to your friends - if they open an account you both get £25

what am I going to do with the £75?!

Anwen_2

Hmm. I e-mailed asking where my application form was and got this reply:

Re: incentive

Thank you for your message dated 28-Feb-2005, regarding applying for an account.

I can confirm that the incentive is for online applications. When an application is made online a completed application form is posted for you signature. I apologise for any confusion.

If you have further questions please do not hesitate to contact us.

MSE_Martin

After dialogue with First Direct today (that was fun )

I've added the following to update my article


UPDATE NOTES 1 MARCH.

First Direct has been deluged by applications and there've been a few wee developments.


It's closing the offer, but not for three months. It's stopping this promotion generally, but as this was an advert it's terms last for three months providing you quote the code. However do note you must get the £100 in within three months of the advert date (19th Feb) - not account opening date - to get the £25


If it asks for a coupon, ignore it. Some operators are now asking for a 'coupon' from The Times yet there was no coupon; it was a straight advert in the Sat Times so don't let it get away with this. It was an advert, openly available in The Times. It told you to call up and quote the code; that's it.

Marigold123

Shame I'm with First Direct already!

Actually, I disagree that it's not a very good account, I've banked with First Direct for about 7 years, and I've always found them excellent. Their Savings account's not too bad, but they have a Bonus Saver's Account as well which gives you a higher rate if you keep a certain amount in it, and which pays a good bonus if you don't withdraw in any given month. (It's currently proving a very handy place to keep my balance transfer funds, where it's been earning me some good interest!)

Their customer service is second to none, and the accounts work very well online together. This is their strength.

Both the Savings and Current Account, (called the 'Bank Account'), pay interest, but you keep most of your money in the Savings Account earning a higher interest rate and transfer over to the Bank Account whenever you need to make payments. You can pay in to either account, but only pay out of the Bank Account itself. In effect you are running as a current account while getting savings Account interest. There is no loss of interest when transferring between your own accounts, (or between your own account and that of another First Direct customer), as transfers occur in real time.

When I opened my account originally I may well have got better terms than are available to new customers now. At the time I signed up, you automatically got a Current Account, (which I later changed to the Bank Account when it became available), a Savings Account, a £100 cheque guarantee card, a credit card and an automatic £1000 overdraft facility.

I now have their Gold Card, which is better to spend on abroad than other cards I have, and an overdraft limit of over £2000, (which I've never actually used, except for a couple of occasions when I have needed emergency finance in the very short term, when changing cars, etc, but it's comforting to know it's there.)

You have to spend £1,200 per year to avoid a £15 service charge on the gold card, which effectively cuts down the cashback you could make elsewhere, (£6 if you're getting 0.5% cashback). Other than that, I don't use it except to make purchases abroad, but for some reason I was able to get a truly huge credit limit on it years ago, and so far have managed to avoid them cutting it. Again, it has come in very handy a couple of times in the past where I needed to borrow a fair bit over a very short period, as putting it on the card for a few days worked out as the cheapest option.

I think by fluke I might have acquired a fairly unique package with First Direct, but it's a damn fine bank IMO. Works for me, anyhow.

---

EDIT: PS, In case you wondered, I'm currently using a Tesco's credit card to spend on, which is 0% for 9 months, and effectively gives 1.5% cashback (in Clubcard points, which translate as cash, or as 4 times their value in Deals Tokens), when used at Tesco and 0.5% cashback when used anywhere else. This is the best cashback card I've got at the moment, but I've recently cancelled several old 'balance transfer-exhausted' cards, and I'm waiting for my credit report to show this before applying for another.

Actually, you can go one better with this. I'm told that if you use another cashback credit card for purchases in Tesco, and just SHOW your Tesco credit card, as you would your clubcard, you still get the extra points, as well as the cashback on the card you are using.

Actually, my Tesco card was supposed to be a 0% balance transfer card, but I was misled when I enquired on the phone, and didn't read the T&Cs well enough, because it transpires that there are TWO 0% Tesco credit cards, (quite apart from the two tiers of Platinum/Supermarket credit card). One is 0% on BTs AND purchases, and one is on purchases only. If you apply online you can only get the 0% for purchases card - you have to ask to have forms sent to you to get the other one, as it is postal application only.

If I cancel this one I have to wait 6 months before applying again - they were completely inflexible about this, (at the same time apologising for my having been misled), and said there was no facility in the system to get round this. Still, I needed a new cashback card, and 0% for 9 months on purchases, (with cashback), isn't bad. I can still accumulate some interest by leaving my purchases cash in my Savings Account.

I am now waiting for my card cancellations to take effect before I apply for one of the Amex cards, probably the blue, and do some sums before deciding whether it's more profitable to spend on the Amex or gain interest on the payments I'm not making on my Tesco card for the remainder of the 9 months. If Amex works out better, I'll ditch Tesco and reapply after 6 months and harvest some more 0% balance transfer interest in my Bonus Savings Account. (If they're still doing the 0% by then.)

Oh what a tangled web we weave! :rolleyes:

oscar_cool

Have just called to open an account and was told that First Direct was reviewing the offer and not to rely on getting the £25.

I checked again, "would I get my £25" and the answer was "probably not"

I did not pursue it further.

Marigold123

oscar_cool wrote:

Have just called to open an account and was told that First Direct was reviewing the offer and not to rely on getting the £25.

I checked again, "would I get my £25" and the answer was "probably not"

I did not pursue it further.

I'd try again, using this info from Martin's post.

MSE_Martin wrote:

It's closing the offer, but not for three months. It's stopping this promotion generally, but as this was an advert it's terms last for three months providing you quote the code. However do note you must get the £100 in within three months of the advert date (19th Feb) - not account opening date - to get the £25


If it asks for a coupon, ignore it. Some operators are now asking for a 'coupon' from The Times yet there was no coupon; it was a straight advert in the Sat Times so don't let it get away with this. It was an advert, openly available in The Times. It told you to call up and quote the code; that's it.

Point out that it is an advertised offer, and it's terms should last for three months providing you quote the code. But as Martin says, don't forget to credit your new account with £100 within 3 months of the advertisement date, (above).

Good luck, and let us know how you get on.

nickinoo

Just spoke to a really lovely, helpful lady. I told her I'd seen the advert in The Times & she said was that HC188? She then explained that I have to pay in £100 & £25 will be credited to my account withing 28 days-sounds good to me.

Thanks Martin.

ssm_3

Since I used to bank with First Direct earlier - I asked my wife to call them for the Current Offer.

The lady on the phone started asking all the details on the paper such as

- Interest rate advertised
- Overdraft limit
- Type of account

Ooooo! Caught us off the feet! Can anyone help provide the details please.

Marigold123

ssm wrote:

Since I used to bank with First Direct earlier - I asked my wife to call them for the Current Offer.

The lady on the phone started asking all the details on the paper such as

- Interest rate advertised
- Overdraft limit
- Type of account

Ooooo! Caught us off the feet! Can anyone help provide the details please.

Why not just say you made a note of the promotion code, but have unfortunately since recycled the paper, and don't remember the other details. If you call back you'll probably get a different person anyway, so don't be shy - go for it!

Matrix_2

I rang First Direct on Saturday, no hassle, didn't ask loads of questions, didn't ask about coupons and they would send me out an application thru the post and I still qualify for the £25. No form yet so rang tonight, they still have me registered, back log of applications, I should get one thru in the next few days.

First time I have ever posted anything on a board - what an affect saving money has had on me!

Thanks Martin for all your great tips.