First Direct e-Savings account & Bank Acct

moomintroll_3

From 21 Feb First Direct are changing the rate of interest and the amount you can deposit on their e-Savings account.

OLD: 5.00%, £50K
NEW: 5.20%, £250K

The overdraft rate on their current account is also changing, to 10.9% from 9.9% but this doesn't happen until 1 April.

Garry

Reaper

That's interesting. Despite being a FD fan I've never used their savings accounts as they have never been competitive, but that's a pretty good rate. It easy beats the once favorite ING.

I assume this is on the straightforward "e-savings account" and not the "bonus savings" account (the one with the punishing withdrawal catch)?

moomintroll_3

Reaper wrote:

That's interesting. Despite being a FD fan I've never used their savings accounts as they have never been competitive, but that's a pretty good rate. It easy beats the once favorite ING.

I assume this is on the straightforward "e-savings account" and not the "bonus savings" account (the one with the punishing withdrawal catch)?

Hi.

Yep - this is the straightforward "e-savings" account.

Looking a little harder at this the account does have a fairly harsh condition on withdrawals. From the rates page...

"e-Savings Account has a maximum balance limit of £50,000 and is limited to one per customer. If any withdrawals are made in a calendar month, no interest will be paid for that month." (the 250K limit doesn't apply until 21 Feb).

And in the leaflet I got with my statement...

17.6 If during any calendar month, you close your account or you make any withdrawals from your account, no interest will be payable.

So, not exactly the best account if you regularly dip into savings. :-/

G

Reaper

Ah, I hadn't noticed they both have nasty catches. That means even if you were to just make a single withdrawal of even £1 a year the interest rate would drop from 5.2% to a less impressive 4.76% (that's just a rough calc).

That re-confirms my old view that FD do a great current account but rubbish savings.

There is only one way to operate this account: Set it up, then when you want take any money out take out the whole lot on the 1st of the month closing the account. That way there is no penalty to pay on the rest of the calendar month. You could even reopen it again after that if you wanted!

But I think I'll give it a miss.