First direct vs Citibank? (in terms of current account)

richardvc

I use Citi and my OH banks with FD.

Citi have been fine for me but as someone else put their telephone customer service is 'questionable' to say the least whereas my OH thinks that FD are top dollar. In fairness to Citi, I wanted a cheap and reliable bank without an overdraft and they have been that and more.

I think I am right in saying that to apply to FD though you need to have a super clean history but they seem to run a good ship - my OH said that in order to have free banking that you need to have other 'products' with them so she transferred her savings account - that may not be relevant now though.

insurgente

'so if you hold money in multiple currencies at Citi do they not have to convert it? Or do you just pay in Euros/Dollars?

It interests me as I spend a fair bit of time in America (have Wachovia & Chase accounts there) and with Citi it suggests I can make free withdrawls at 7 elevens & Publix...not bad. Also I would be able to stop holding money in my wachovia account, then shifting it to Chase (to avoid wachovia's insane international charges) then withdrawing it in the UK...takes me the best part of a week

Hazzanet

I hold a GBP, EUR and USD account with them. All three accounts hold that currency and when you link the debit card to the account that you want to use, it will take the funds out in the currency of the account with no charge. So if you spend $5 with the card and it is linked to the USD account, the USD account balance will reduce by $5.

The USD account also comes with a USD chequebook drawn on their New York branch, so you can use that to make payments in the US or pay into other accounts.

I use the GBP account to pay in here and transfer across to the USD/EUR accounts and the rate is usually quite good. The only drawback that I can see is that the USD account doesn't have an American account number or ABN code, and so can't take direct deposits from the US system or set up whatever their equivalent of direct debits is. You can still pay in via BACS or Swift though.

HTH