Santander or First Direct?

Jennifer_Jane

laurenzo wrote: »

Sorry to double post but can anyone please confirm if the extra £25 incentive is available in addition to the £100 if you do so via money supermarket as I can't seem to find any trace of it anywhere now?

Yes, I also couldn't find it over the weekend. It had gone from this site as well. Must have finished. But sounds as if I wouldn't have been able to get this account anyway. I'll give it a go, of course, but there we go.

dobsoncrew

Me & my partner have a mortgage with Santander and a bank accout with First Direct. First of all I paid the mortgage account fee (as I had no choice they added it to our mortgage) in branch got a hand written reciept (very unprofessional in my mind) from the clerk. It didn't get credited when it should have. Had to phone up and they told me to go to the branch which I did. It finally got credited 2 months later. No apology no nothing except extra interest. As for FD only 1 complaint no £100 for opening the account witch enticed me in the first place. Apart from that I would have to say FD. I was tempted by the Santander bonus but is wasn't really worth it. After the things that have happened to people not being to access their accounts/money for no reason and I will mention the reports of their lack of customer service

dobsoncrew

Also I cannot wait to be able to move my mortgage from Santander either

Broadwoodboy

FD is fine if you live in England or Wales. You have a pay-in facility at HSBC. For those of us living in Scotland or Northern Ireland, FD is not as easy, though HSBC have recentlly opened a branch in Glasgow - it is still a long way off for a lot of people. HSBC do not a branch network in Scotland or Northern Ireland.

I have had shocking customer service with Santander (and even been paid compensation for that poor service), but now in the middle of the transfer (£100 + £25 Amazon voucher). Keep putting pressure on them. So far they have delivered. Watch this space!

samwsmith1

I thought you could use the post office in Scotland for First Direct?
You can always pay cheques in through the freepost envelopes.

grizzly1911

red_devil wrote: »

i see so you make money by switching bank accounts dont you find it a hassle informing the people that pay you etc?

Me thinks these aren't the posters main accounts.

They are merely set up with DDRs and a monthly funds feed from savings, which then gets rotated each month.

Money for old rope.

gld73

dobsoncrew wrote: »

Also I cannot wait to be able to move my mortgage from Santander either

Tell me about it. I haven't been able to access my mortgage for 2 months now, which is causing me huge problems as it's an off-set mortgage and so nearly all my savings are in the savings account linked to the mortgage and I desperately need to get money out.

I've tried in person in 2 different branches to sort it out and they said they can't do anything; I tried the secure messaging system online and they said they'd re-set it and it should work (it didn't); and I've tried the phone help line and the people there still haven't resolved it. I can log into internet banking, it's just the mortgage page which then goes to an 'unavailable' page.

I think when making a decision is between Santander and anyone else, the 'anyone else' option has to look good.....

steve237

I have an account with both, and FD win hands down for customer service.

Jennifer_Jane

Yes, Santander is certainly not my main account, and I would be loathe to move my Basic State Pension and Company pension to a different account. Am sure something would go wrong no matter who it was to. Anyway, just to say that I am now putting my £1000 from the main account to Santander. Pressed the button to transfer the fund from the one account, and then logged onto Santander, and there was my £1000. So lovely jubbly. Easy to do.

So, so far, no problems with Santander except an initial little panic on my part when everything was up and working but I couldn't get online. So my experience - which is essentially risk-free for me anyway - has all been fine. I'd certainly recommend trying for it as a second account to get for the £100 + Topcashback (or whatever) + the 5% on keeping under £2,500 in the account.

PS - yes, would be very worried to have serious money relying on them though. This is just extra stuff. Am not denying others' experiences.

Jennifer_Jane

londoner1998 wrote: »

Hi
I opened this account last week- I transfer the money from another account and there is no need to get your salary paid in, as long as it is 1,500 at least.
I think you still get the £100 bonus (but I didn't switch any D/D or S/O so I don't think I qualify for that one). But you can certainly pay from another bank account. Call them and ask- they are delightful on the phone, really good customer service. They got my acount up and running in fine minutes. I don;t think I will be leaving them, even with the £100 incentive. A&L on the other hand...already thinking of closing the account once my regular saver stops paying well...

Re the sentence in bold, I opened the A&L account for several reasons, previously, including some perks and £100 incentive. I closed it and three months later opened the Santander Preferred Current Account - per previous posts. That may be a thought for you?

PS - just seen on Santander site that the £100 incentive is finishing on 11th September.