First Direct £100 re new current account question

A_Flock_Of_Sheep

I got the £125 opening bonus and £100 leaving gift as well so £225 for not a lot of work. I paid in £1501 and the joining gift arrived about a week later. The leaving gift came as a cheque about 10 days after closing the account.

I was quite shocked because it says you must have the account 6 months to get the leaving gift but I only had the account open 3 week, closed it and got the leaving incentive.

Gromitt

What did you give as your reason for leaving? As they say a complaint must be upheld to get it.

A_Flock_Of_Sheep

Gromitt wrote: »

What did you give as your reason for leaving? As they say a complaint must be upheld to get it.

displeased with web banking
lack of branch network
not keen on operating an account by phone
poor range of savings accounts

it must have been upheld - but it does say if you are not satisfied for any reason they pay it

apt

As you can get over £60 in additional interest every year through the 8% First Direct regular saver your maths much be pretty poor if you decide that leaving for a one-off payment of £100 is a better deal.

Gromitt

£60? If your paying in £300/month to the regular saver then I get the gross annual interest to be closer to £159 (£127 after basic rate tax)

jen245

apt wrote: »

As you can get over £60 in additional interest every year through the 8% First Direct regular saver your maths much be pretty poor if you decide that leaving for a one-off payment of £100 is a better deal.

The 8% interest is only for a year, and assuming you save the full £300 a month, youd get £124 net (£156 gross)

YorkshireBoy

Gromitt wrote: »

£60? If your paying in £300/month to the regular saver then I get the gross annual interest to be closer to £159 (£127 after basic rate tax)

jen345 wrote:

The 8% interest is only for a year, and assuming you save the full £300 a month, youd get £124 net (£156 gross)

I think the point 'apt' was making (note the word "additional") was that it's £60 more than you'd get by saving £300 a month in a 'normal' savings account paying, say, 3% gross.

SpiritofAfrica

so to cap it all from your comments is, to open the account online....put in as much as you can into the savings account in the first month to earn the full 8% then drip feed the balance of £1,500 for the next 11 months?
thanks for all your comments.

Nine_Lives

Unless its changed since Nov 2010, and it's hard to tell with people passing their assumptions off as gospel, then all I had to do back then was sign up to a 1st account, an esaver which I credited with £1 to avoid any fees. I then transferred from my Halifax £1500 for the first 3months & got the £100. Job done.
I'd then.credit my 1st account with £300 each month which would auto go into my regular saver on anniversary date.


Has it changed that much in 13months?

Yorkie1

SpiritofAfrica wrote: »

so to cap it all from your comments is, to open the account online....put in as much as you can into the savings account in the first month to earn the full 8% then drip feed the balance of £1,500 for the next 11 months?
thanks for all your comments.

I'm not sure you're right; I'm going through the process now and have the application forms ready to complete later today.

Open the 1st account online. Once open you can open the regular saver and put up to £300 per month into it.

The £1500 relates to the 1st account and not the regular saver. It can be either a total credit of that amount into the 1st account every month, or an average balance of £1500 in that account for the month I think. So you can't just drip £1500 into the account over the year.

However, you can avoid the £1500 issue by opening an esaver or ordinary saver account at the same time as opening the 1st account (or later, I suppose), and keeping the minimum balance of £1 in it.