First Direct £10 monthly banking fee (merged)

MPH80

As I said before, no-one makes this kind of song and dance when A&L charge a fiver for failing to deposit £500 a month into their Premier Direct Account.

Ah yes - but the big difference here is that £500 a month equates to an income of £6000 post tax a year or about £6500 pre tax.

In other words - A&L are looking for people who have an income and in return they give you a competitive product.

FD are excluding a lot of people because of the min income and they aren't giving a competitive product. That's the difference.

M.

CopperPlate_2

Ok, I appreciate that the levels are different. But no-one complains if Coutts & Co demand ridiculous earnings levels for an account with them; or you end up paying for a 'prestige' credit card like NatWest Black, etc. All I'm saying is that others charge a fee for a product too. Yes, fd are not the most competitive, although it depends on what you base competitiveness - is it just interest rates? Or do you include things like the free weekly text message update, the free internet banking plus, the quick and excellent customer service, and yes, the not so great interest rates? Compared with the likes of A&L where you might wait days to get a reply to a query, where mistakes are commonplace apparently, where customer service is at the end of an 0845 or 0870 number, but where the interest rate is higher? I supppose it's each to their own.

FD appear to be repositioning themselves and as you rightly point out MPH80 excluding those who perhaps do not have a sufficient income stream or, to quote their CEO, 'deeper relationship' with them, that they feel now fits their new customer profile. Of course, all supposition.

kenshaz

Internet plus is brilliant ,text message updates is a waste of time.The internet plus is the only reason that I maintain an account and fortunately I also have a savings account.But if I had to I would not pay £10 a month for internet plus,that is approx equivalent to the monthly interest on £3000.They are not good enough to demand that sort of renumeration.

wigglebeena

CopperPlate wrote:

You should only leave fd if you feel that the £10 charge will affect you and you're not prepared to pay for the service you receive or you feel it is a matter of principle for you.

How are you going to enforce that?

Phoenix79_2

wigglebeena wrote:

How are you going to enforce that?

Whats your point?

Copperplate has said that people shouldn't bully/guilt trip other people into closing their FD account if they are happy with the service and/or they don't mind paying the fee, or they are fee exempt. I agree with this.

CopperPlate_2

wigglebeena wrote:

How are you going to enforce that?

Sorry, you're going to have to explain this one. Enforce what?

AntiLochus

kenshaz wrote:

Internet plus is brilliant ,text message updates is a waste of time.The internet plus is the only reason that I maintain an account and fortunately I also have a savings account.But if I had to I would not pay £10 a month for internet plus,that is approx equivalent to the monthly interest on £3000.They are not good enough to demand that sort of renumeration.

You don't need an account with First Direct to use Internet Banking Plus - it's a free service - well, currently anyway

morphious345

SparciaM wrote:

FD_EMPLOYEE

You and FD mention "A DEEPER RELATIONSHIP WITH IT'S CUSTOMERS" etc, BUT you don't offer any good products that will make a deeper relationship. You say you want to be to re-consider closing my accounts, but your interest rates are at the bottom of every table. Espicially on your ISA, CC etc - So why would I deepen my relationship with a bank that I'm loosing money with.

I wouldn't mind paying a £10 charge if I was getting something for it, yet all I get with FD is someone picking up the phone within 30 secs and a UK person (which I get at smile, a UK person that is), then get transferred around to different people to sort out my banking. But how many times in the last 10 years of online banking have I phone my bank? About 3 times, so I DON'T need good phone service, I need good internet service and rates and at this moment in time FD don't offer that.

You want to deepend your relationship with customers, then put the minimum to pay in at the national average, not a stupid £24,000 a year - which according to the money guardian about 45% of the population don't earn and increase your interest rates, or with the e-saver don't have a penalty for withdrawing money in a month, or reduce your OD interest rate - as I see in the new T&Cs that this has been increased.

FD are a a bank, you want customers to stay, then give them something to stay for!!!!

thats the point, they don't want you to stay if you are bringing in less than that. Would you rather they basically told you to go? They want you to be more profitable or leave, simple as that.

RedOnRed

I can't believe it costs FD £10 a month to service an account which only exists some where in computer ether land and maybe in credit to £1500. Surely multiple accounts with any credit in them is still profitable and can be invested by them.

What they should be doing is refusing to send out documentaion like statements and cheque books and therefore only allow their customers below the threshold to do PC/phone banking.

CopperPlate_2

And you should get a discounted rate if you choose to forego statements being posted to you, and not have a chequebook, only do online banking as ROR has said.