First Direct Leaving £100

A_Flock_Of_Sheep

I have found a thread where people have and havn't managed to get the £100.

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/1151585

It seems they do not readily show the terms for the leaving gift of £100. But my OH phoned them about it (and this is from the nag's mouth) you get it if:

(a) You have been with FD for at tleast 6 months
(b) Are not happy with them - this CAN simply be for any reason too.
(c) You have used the account switching service
(d) You have paid in £1500 or more for the first 6 months.

So I will go for this.

@apt - The regular saver is naff. The rate is only valid for 1 year, you can only open it with £300 and then save up to £300 each month.

The site says I would get a "whopping" £124 in one year.

I can get £225 in 6 months by using the £125 joining incentive and £100 leaving gift.

apt

You've got the £125 anyhow and the £100 for leaving is a one-off payment. You would get more than this in extra interest by taking up offers like the 8% regular saver and its predecessor, an ISA paying 7% or 7.5%.

MoneySaverLog

apt wrote: »

an ISA paying 7% or 7.5%.

I'd be unhappy that they don't offer this rate anymore lol

£100 please.

A_Flock_Of_Sheep

apt wrote: »

You've got the £125 anyhow and the £100 for leaving is a one-off payment. You would get more than this in extra interest by taking up offers like the 8% regular saver and its predecessor, an ISA paying 7% or 7.5%.

I don't really want a regular saver type of account and have an ISA elsewhere - I doubt they will offer an ISA paying 7% any time soon and if they did it would probably come with a lot of strings like locking your cash away which I am also not interested in. If the regular saver let you bank say £1000 a month then I might be tempted to stay but £300 isn't much. It also limits withdrawals:

Can I make withdrawals from my Regular Saver Account?

You cannot make any withdrawals from your Regular Saver unless you close your account.


What's the point of that?


My sole reason for joining FD was to get the £125 joining gift and £100 leaving gift as for me they don't offer anything that really wows me enough to move my current account totally from the Cumberland Building Society and I started this thread to ask if anyone else had taken advantage of this offer.

YorkshireBoy

A_Flock_Of_Sheep wrote: »

The site says I would get a "whopping" £124 in one year.

They describe it well, because if you deposited the same amount in a 3% account over a year you'd get a 'normal' £46.80...so around £77 more for doing nothing extra.

I can get £225 in 6 months by using the £125 joining incentive and £100 leaving gift.

But you don't *know* you can get the leaving payment yet do you?

I bagged this offer a few years ago and pocketed £350*, but I had to 'fight' to get the leaving payment**. They've since very much tightened up on the leaving payment and, as has been reported on here, are prepared to stand their ground and let complaints get to the FOS.

* £100 + £100 + £150 for 3 referals (of which I rebated £25 to each, so a net £275).

** I cited their offer of a guaranteed credit card with a £10K limit which was then subsequently refused when I tried to accept it. There were other issues but this was the main one.

samwsmith1

All my cheques from FD have stubs on, I'm surprised you haven't got them in your cheque book - the only cheque book I had without stubs was my alliance and leicester one.
If they've said that on the phone I would send them an e-message, or even an anonymous email to 24hours@firstdirect.com asking about cheque stubs.

alanq

I am a new FD customer. No stubs on the cheque book that I was issued. Stubs have worked well over the years. I cannot think of any benefit in not having them. I assume some bright spark thought we would like cheque books to be smaller! I don't. (...but I write so few cheques it is not a major issue)

samwsmith1

Maybe either send them a complaint or suggestion through online banking regarding stubs on cheque books, given that they are made to order I wouldn't be surprised if complaints couldn't order you one with stubs.

EarthBoy

Every cheque book I've had from them in the last twenty years has had stubs. If other people have got them without stubs then maybe First Direct issue both kinds. If they only do stub-less ones now, then it must be a recent decision on their part. My current cheque book came over a year ago and it does indeed have stubs on it.

When I first joined they also sent me a real leather cheque book holder and card wallet. The cheque book holder is the correct size for cheques with stubs. If I had cheques without stubs, then the the holder/cover would be too big.

A_Flock_Of_Sheep

YorkshireBoy - the FD regular saver is too restictive for what I want. You have to close the account to make a withdrawal. How stupid is that. I am really not interested in staying with FD as I am happy with my Building Society and only went with FD to bag the cash gifts.

I did this last time with Santander for £100 which seems to be a common, encouraged and acceptable practice on here. Indeed people on here even do this multiple times. But when it comes to exploiting the generous offers by FD there seems to be some kind of issue and people pointing out how they won't pay rather than coming up with ideas so they do.

I have no sentiment when it comes to exploiting offers by huge profit making organisations. FD offer me nothing that would steer me from the Cumberland BS apart from the prospect of £225 by being with them for 180 days. I now have about 175 days to go!

I must admit though the FD Debit card is quite smart looking. It came today!