First Direct Options

emuzeg

Hi,

This is my first post. I have 3 bank accounts, one with HSBC which I opened when I was 16 (7 years ago), one with Lloyds TSB opened in Oct 2011 and First Direct opened a few days ago.

I opened the Lloyds one because of the good current account interest rates (2.96% if you keep more than 3 grand in there) and use this account for most of my banking now. However I opened the FD 1st Account along with an everyday e-Saver account (to avoid the £10 monthly charge) because my mum has used them for years and couldn't speak more highly of their service - not to mention their fantastic designs of cards and paper! I eventually plan to go over to FD totally.

Now, I have applied for the 12 month bonus on my everyday e-Saver account which gives me an extra 1% interest for 12 months on top of the existing 0.25%. (Lloyds e-savings account gives me 1.6% for 12 months, better than FD, but then drops down to 0.08%, much worse).

My question is, what other savings account with FD that is better than Lloyds or HSBC could I open WITHOUT losing my exemption from the £10 monthly charge?

Gromitt

8% Regular saver?

I looked at the TSB 3% current account, but my outgoings are about 1K per month, so average balance would be about half that, so I'd get £15/year in interest - £1/month a month. Not really worth the effort.

AirlieBird

FD does not have any decent savings rates (apart from the Regular Saver which is not a qualifying account to waive the monthly fee).

And what have they done with their website? Ghastly.:eek:

emuzeg

Thanks for the replies. Oh I love the new site! Flashy black and white, classy :cool:

The online banking interface is the same as before though, bit more modest.

Hmm well, in that case I think I won't use FD for savings, I'll use Lloyds. Then again, what's this 8% regular saver? EIGHT percent? That seems amazingly high. Must be some catch? I have an account in Turkey (unfortunately not much money in it), and the current accounts there give you about 9-12% interest, really superb if you can deposit a large lump sum and let it accrue interest.

Down side is that all banks there charge fees every 6 months, about £20. Only recently realised how lucky I was to have a UK account where there are no charges like that.

Mikhail

You could apply for eSaver elsewhere, e.g., here: http://goo.gl/bfOtb (3.10% gross AER) you don't have to keep all the eggs in one basket. I use fd only for regular saver and banking, my eSaver is in Saffron BS, ISA is in Nationwide BS.

Mikhail

emuzeg wrote: »

Thanks for the replies. Oh I love the new site! Flashy black and white, classy :cool:

The online banking interface is the same as before though, bit more modest.

Hmm well, in that case I think I won't use FD for savings, I'll use Lloyds. Then again, what's this 8% regular saver? EIGHT percent? That seems amazingly high. Must be some catch? I have an account in Turkey (unfortunately not much money in it), and the current accounts there give you about 9-12% interest, really superb if you can deposit a large lump sum and let it accrue interest.

Down side is that all banks there charge fees every 6 months, about £20. Only recently realised how lucky I was to have a UK account where there are no charges like that.

There is a catch - you can only deposit up to £300 per month.

Ifts

AirlieBird wrote: »

FD does not have any decent savings rates (apart from the Regular Saver which is not a qualifying account to waive the monthly fee).

Think you can get away with the monthly fee on the First Direct 1st Account if you also open their everyday e-Saver account, even with just a pound in the e-Saver does the job as it counts as a qualifying account to waive the monthly fee.

First Direct 8% Regular Saver also discussed in this thread:
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/....php?t=2830388 (page 2 post 39)

emuzeg

Thanks for all the help. I've posted about the FD rate n that thread.

I am currently studying and after having paid all my costs and rent I have a lump sum of about £2800 left. At the mo the majority of that is in my Lloyds current account getting 1.49%, giving me around £5 per month interest. The FD 8% account will be better after having deposited 900 in it over 3 months, but I can't decide which is better in the long run - £300 pm into FD 8% account or stick with my Lloyds current account?

Gromitt

Well if you put £300/month into a FD Regular saver, then you'll get about £150 interest at the end of the 12 months (so about £125 if you pay basic rate tax). Thats a 4.3% return. If you can get better than that elsewhere then do it.

emuzeg

I see. Well I have just looked at my Lloyds statement for the past 2 months. Over that time I have had over 2000 in the current account but I have had no interest!! Reading the small print it says:

Balances over 1000 get 1.59% net, but to get paid each month need to pay in minimum 1000 per month.

So I get ZERO on all my cash in Lloyds.

I'll have to see what other options I have. Since I need access to cash I can't really tie it up in the 8% FD saver account, so might have to just put it in my Lloyds esaver.

jennifernil

I would be looking for something that pays at least 3% on savings. Have you got an ISA? there are several instant access ones that pay 3% tax free.

On your Lloyds account........the £1000 per month just has to enter the account. If you have £2000 in there, move £1000 out and back in again.

Maybe you could open a Halifax Reward account, cycle the £1000 through it and pick up £5 per month for doing so.