Santander or First Direct?

melf67

Hello,

I am looking to switch bank accounts and am tempted by the Santander Premier account (£100 + £25 Amazon voucher and 5% AER interest for the first year) and the First Direct account (£125 to switch, £100 if you leave between 6-12 months later).

Does the Santander account always have 5% AER for the first year or is it just for this offer? If it is always 5% for the first year, wouldn't it be better to switch to First direct for 6+ months to get the £125+£100 and then switch to Santander to get the 5% interest?

Or am I missing something?

Regards,
melf67

nearlyrich

You are missing the fact that Santander is Spanish for "crap customer service" for a start.

I am biased with almost 20 years of amazing FD customer service to colour my opinion and a few friends and family anecdotes about just how rubbish Santander are both on the phone and in person over the counter.

meer53

Open the first direct account - you won't switch to Santandire.

wee_plumb

First Direct account for better customer service.

flexrider

First direct have a look around at the site via Google and this site who Scream crap!!!crap!!!crap about them i just got back from being abroad working and had nothing now but trouble with them and to be honest there customer services could not sort out a !!!! up in a brewery if they had too

Aviod santander!! awful

Jennifer_Jane

I assume you won't be using these as your main bank accounts?

I went for the Santander (£100 + £45 Quidco cashback, or £55.55 via TopCashback) preferred current account first. I have yet to try the First Direct one (just waiting for a direct debit to get lodged into my 'spare' bank account which I use for such switches. I understand that First Direct are picky about who they choose, so from a credit checks point of view I would do the FD one first.

You probably know that with FD you need to deposit £1500 a month, although you can rotate money, it doesn't need to be income. I'm unsure if you need to have direct debits, although you do need to use their switching service. You can also get 8% on regular monthly savings of up to £300 per month into their savings account.

With Santander, you must have two direct debits to switch, and the monthly amount to deposit is £1000. You get 5% on up to £2500 in the preferred current account. The 'switch' has been fine except for some confusion about getting online access early on, but the Quidco cashback was paid very smartly, and so was the £100. I don't know if you always get the 5% or if it's just for this offer. There is some discussion about timings to get the interest which you may like to check. I deposited £2500 which I'm keeping there for the 12 months at 5%, and got interest immediately on it. Very pleased.

samwsmith1

No competition between the two, go for First Direct, you won't regret it!
Just open an esaver with £1 to ensure you don't get charger the monthly fee.

To get the £100 leaving incentive you need to have use there switching service, deposited £1500 each month and have a valid reason for leaving them.

EarthBoy

This is a no-brainer. First Direct all the way. Avoid Santander like the plague.

smartiedriver_2

First Direct every time. Santander's customer service is shocking.

melf67

Thanks for the replies.

I think I will go for the First Direct account and probably get a savings account with them as well (8%) to try to 'squirrel' any spare money into.

p.s. Before creating this thread, I had tried to apply online for the Santander account, but got stuck at step 4 where you have to state whether you have any other bank accounts. The choice is Yes/No, and I selected No because I don't have another account. It would not let me go any further because it wouldn't accept no as an answer. I rang the support line and they said that it should work, try again, or try a different browser. I did both but it made no difference, and I gave up.

pmduk

That should have told you all you need to know about their ability as a bank.