First Direct Customers - Staying or going?

honey_bee1384

Update Note: Now read Martin's full
"How to beat the new charges" article

Hi guys,

I'm new here, my mum recommended me. I'm a first direct customer, have been for a few years and have a current account with them that i use constantly as its my main account and my wages go into it. Got my letter yesterday and i was extremely annoyed, i dont earn £1500 a month, let alone maintain a balance in excess of that. I think its outrageous that they want to start to charging people who don't meet their criteria. I can understand that they would want to get rid of the dormant accounts, but why penalise those people with lower incomes who use their accounts regularly? I phoned first direct last night and the woman i spoke to basically ran through a list of their products trying to get me to take one out, the thing is i dont need any of their products. Now i'm in two minds whether to shift my account or not. From reading the threads on this subject it seems a lot of people are moving.

So i was wondering (if my poll works) if people would be kind enough to help me decide what to do by letting me know what you have done. I dont really want to leave them as the service has been fantastic, but i dont think i nor anyone else should have to pay a charge as we don't meet their criteria. It seems like first direct want to be an elite bank.

Apologies for the rant.

Honeybee

bj-sailaway

I didn't get a letter, but we do bank with FD, and we don't leave a spare £1,500 in there each month.

We also have a mortgage with them, does that let me off the charges? Just noticed you mentioned them trying to flog you a product, so i guess you meant that would exempt you from the charge?

Outrageous! But they will all follow.

honey_bee1384

Thinking about changing bank

Bj-Sailaway you will be exempt from the charges if you have other products with them. That is why the woman was pushing products onto me. She was telling me a credit card would be my best option, but i'm trying to rid myself of the one i have and not have a credit card at all. If other banks follow suit i am a bit stuck.

KTF

Why not take the card then cut it up and throw it away as soon as it arrives?

honey_bee1384

Thinking about changing bank

If only it were that simple, she told me i would have to be using it regularly, i.e every month to avoid the charge, so in a sense she is encouraging me to get into debt.

SparciaM

KTF, u can't do that. The "extra product" that you buy has to be used on a regular basis. The FD lady told me, if my CC was dormant then the charge would be applied to my current account.

briona

First Direct won't be the only people to do this as where one leads, others soon follow suit, so I'm going to bide my time and see what happens with the other banks first. Being part of HSBC, I would definitely expect them to follow suit, but as the FD current account is better than HSBC's, I would prefer to close that account [and yes, I KNOW they're crap and that I should be banking with someone else anyway!] and transfer everything to FD regardless of the fees.

The letter I got stated that "you won't be required to pay the banking fee so long as you take out another FD product, if you haven't already done so".

Having told me that the cost to my current account would be £10 a month, they then [rather laughably I thought!] tried to interest me in signing up to their first directory "for just £11.95 a month". Now I'd hardly pay MORE than the current account fee in order to um... avoid the current account fee, would I???

Anyway, there are rumours that credit cards are going to be subject to an annual fee as well and not just with FD, so I wouldn't jump too quickly to take out one of theirs just to avoid the current account fee. Wonder if their e-savings account [4.75% AER] qualifies as a second product???

BargainHunterCat

Thinking about changing bank

I can't afford to move away from FD yet because I am stuck in my overdraft & unable to pay it off just yet due to my circumstances.
They've already hit me with several hundred pounds worth of excess overdraft fees which have just made things much worse for me - another £10 a month is the last thing I need.

I've just read this report on Yahoo:

" First Direct will become the first leading bank to charge its customers for a standard current account, it has announced. The bank will charge customers £10 a month to hold a current account unless they deposit or maintain a balance of at least £1,500 a month, Chief Executive Chris Pilling has confirmed. Defending the move, he said: "I would contest whether it is the end of free banking as we know it."

He said the bank enjoyed the "upper end of the demographic profile" in its customers, of whom 15% will be affected by the charge.

He added that there were measures customers could take to avoid the charge.

Mr Pilling said that First Direct, whose parent company is HSBC, was a "small, but perfectly formed bank so we have a good reputation for customer service".

Addressing customers, he said: "If you do [want to stay], either please put more money into a relationship with First Direct, or buy a product from us, or pay the fee."

Explaining what such a product would be, he said: "Either ... take a loan from us, a mortgage from us, or an insurance product."

Consumer organisations such as Which? and The Consumer Action Group have already expressed concern about the charge."

I am absolutely disgusted - clearly I'm not rich enough to deserve to bank with them anymore!! Another case of the people who have the least money paying through the nose.

I will be getting another bank account as soon as I can and sticking 2 fingers up at First Direct. I used to love them but bit by bit they've introduced charges. First for text message banking now for the account itself - hang on...I thought the point of First Direct was no account fees because you do everything on the phone or internet. We don't even get a branch and HSBC whinge like mad if you go in there to do something on a FD account!

Hardly value for money... This is just pure greed. :mad:

anniecave

Staying with FD

honey_bee1384 wrote:

I phoned first direct last night and the woman i spoke to basically ran through a list of their products trying to get me to take one out, the thing is i dont need any of their products. Now i'm in two minds whether to shift my account or not.
Honeybee

Why not just take out one of their savings accounts (you can have their instant access account at only £1 balance I believe) and put some money in or out each month.
Maybe you don't "need" this savings account, but if it keeps them happy, why not just play the game?

Miss_Behaving

Thinking about changing bank

SparciaM wrote:

KTF, u can't do that. The "extra product" that you buy has to be used on a regular basis. The FD lady told me, if my CC was dormant then the charge would be applied to my current account.

I've just spoken to their call centre and was told that because I had savings accounts and credit card with them I was exempt. My accounts are empty and I use my credit card a couple of times a year - I queried whether this would matter and she said as long as I held the products I was exempt. This is the total opposite of what you've been told. I'm confused now...

Debbie_Hobdell

Thinking about changing bank

anniecave wrote:

Why not just take out one of their savings accounts (you can have their instant access account at only £1 balance I believe) and put some money in or out each month.
Maybe you don't "need" this savings account, but if it keeps them happy, why not just play the game?

This is what I'm going to do - I need the extra freedom their o'draft gives me, so why not stick £1 in a savings account, which seems to satisfy the new criteria. Then if they say that's not enough, I'll walk!