first direct query

pcyam

Just opened a first direct bank account to take advantage from the £100 but more so because there is no longer a Barclays branch where I live.

I have spoke to 2 people and they have both given me different advice.
1-says I dont need to transfer direct debits and need to credit the account with min £1500 as a lump sum into the account for 1 month only month 2 and 3 the £1500 can be made up of several payments into the account.

the other says- as long as I make a total of £1500 into the account for at least 3 months I will meet the T&C for the £100 incentive.

I have ready on the forum that some have had the incentive even though the payment was not directly from their employers, so did you just transfer from another bank account yourself and put a reference on it as salary?

TIA

anselld

I think one lump sum is sufficient and it does not need to be salary.

anselld

PS.. Open a savings account with £1 if you don't want to keep meeting the £1500 funding requirement every month.

anniecave

watch out for what savings accounts count as the additional product for avoiding the funding requirements on an ongoing basis - it's not all savings accounts I think

anniecave

Regarding the salary/funding, it's likely to come down to what is displayed as the payee on the incoming payments. Different banks and accounts display differently both the payee name and the reference, and/or any tag names.


For example a payment from one of my savings accounts might display as my name (as that's the account name) but a payment from another account comes through as the "reference", which would be whatever I've entered.


My salary payment from my employer when it hits my personal account displays as the "tag name" on our company online banking system, which was set up to distinguish between our several different company bank accounts so it's actually a variant of our company name but not quite the exact name.


If you were paying in several payments of £250 which were clearly just payments from other accounts in your name - eg it displayed "MR J SMITH" every time, then that would be easy to pick up that it's definately not a salary payment. If it came through as one amount (and an unusual amount) and a description that isn't your name, then it looks more like a salary payment.


On some banking systems when you set up a payee you can specify what you'd like the recipient to see for the payer's name. And sometimes people don't set it up correctly. So when I used to work for an electricity supplier we used to receive payments and all that was displayed was "Electricity bill" - instead of the name of who'd paid it! So the payer had got confused between what they wanted to see as the description on their system and what they wanted the receipient to see....

pcyam

i want to fund it with 1500 for the first 3 mnths to at least get the 100 incentive after that i will open another account.

problem is salary is less than 1500 and wanted to top it up with an additional payment from external bank is this possible, and do i or do i not need to transfer direct debits?

Scrounger

pcyam wrote: »

... I wanted to top it up with an additional payment from external bank, is this possible?

Yes

pcyam wrote: »

... do I need to transfer direct debits?

No

Scrounger

pcyam

Have funded it with £1500 from a FP from another account, and the incentive has been paid already when the account has been opened for less than a month. AMAZING FD, plus can recommend friends and get more money too!! DOUBLE AMAZING, whats rubbish is the local HSBC is closing and I need to pay cheques into the account, RUBBISH,!!! Looks like I will probably close the account if it doesnt work out because not looking to drive 45mins just to pay a cheque every time. x

UnderControl_2

pcyam no need to physically pay in cheques, you can post these in freepost envelopes. FD will provide, if you go into online banking you can request them and they will send them out to you. So no need to worry about having to travel anywhere to pay in cheques.

Lith

anniecave wrote: »

watch out for what savings accounts count as the additional product for avoiding the funding requirements on an ongoing basis - it's not all savings accounts I think

True, it's the e-Saveing Account that needs to be opened, just don't tell them that.


I still don't understand why FD allow this.. yo think they would of 'twigged' people doing this to get 'free banking'

teeni

HI i opened my account on the 6th October ransferred £1000 in on the 10th and then £501 on the 15th the £100 was in my account on the 25th oct

I have no direct debits nor my salary tranferred to the account was very surprised when the funds arrived so promptly