First Direct - £10.00 Banking Fee, whats this all about

Alexsmum1

I received a notification of charges last night from First Direct and noticed i am going to be charged £10.00 this month as a "Banking Fee". I phoned First Direct as my account hadn't gone over the overdraft and was advised it is a MONTHLY fee for having a current account that doesnt receive payments of over £1500.00 on a monthly basis. This £10.00 will be charged every month unless i open another account with them or take out insurance. I asked the girl if she thought it is ok to charge a customer for choosing to bank with them and she said no !!! I asked what the difference of this and me going into Tesco's, spending £50.00 and being charged £60.00 because i had chose to shop there...The girl didnt have an answer. Can anyone help. I intend to close my account with First Direct but surely this cannot be right to charge someone £10.00 because they dont credit 1500.00 each month....

Timmne

Alexsmum1 wrote: »

I received a notification of charges last night from First Direct and noticed i am going to be charged £10.00 this month as a "Banking Fee". I phoned First Direct as my account hadn't gone over the overdraft and was advised it is a MONTHLY fee for having a current account that doesnt receive payments of over £1500.00 on a monthly basis. This £10.00 will be charged every month unless i open another account with them or take out insurance. I asked the girl if she thought it is ok to charge a customer for choosing to bank with them and she said no !!! I asked what the difference of this and me going into Tesco's, spending £50.00 and being charged £60.00 because i had chose to shop there...The girl didnt have an answer. Can anyone help. I intend to close my account with First Direct but surely this cannot be right to charge someone £10.00 because they dont credit 1500.00 each month....

Yes it's right, in my opinion - they're providing a very high quality of service compared to most other banks (I've dealt with most).

It's not really like going in to Tesco and paying them extra; that's a flawed argument really as they sell products rather than a service (amongst other arguments).

If you have Sky telly you probably pay them a fee. If you go to a gym you probably pay them too - along with any other things that you pay for and never receive anything tangible.

It's not a bank's duty to provide free banking, it's just that most do. FD are just preventing themselves from being flooded with lower quality customers which people who earn less than £1500 per month and have only one account with them are.

MPH80

Timmne wrote:

It's not really like going in to Tesco and paying them extra; that's a flawed argument really as they sell products rather than a service (amongst other arguments).

You're right - it's not like that ... it's more like this:

(This is based on my local Tesco) I go into Tesco and spend £15 - they give me my parking money back. If I spend less - I don't get my parking back.

Or alternatively you can think of it like this:

I can choose to shop at Tesco where I know it will cost me £x
or I can choose to shop at Waitrose where the same goods will cost me £x+y
or I can choose to go to Asda where the same goods will cost me £x-z

The choice is yours.

And as a sign off to this - FD made it abundantly clear this was going to happen - you really shouldn't have been surprised by the charge. I don't have an account with them - but even I saw the posts here, the stories on the BBC website, the pieces in the newspapers etc.

M.

newlywed

FD wrote to me months ago to say this charge was coming in (but I am currently not charged as I have several accounts).

Can you not just open a savings account and deposit £1? I understood it was only if you held just one account so would that not get round it?

sausagefans

My understanding of this charge was that it was put onto accounts where people didn't have additional products (not just insurance). We were calling to close our joint and sole cheque accounts and it was explained to us that as we had ISAs, credit card etc we would not be charged...

ftbworried

They're worth every penny in my mind. I've never had such hassle-free banking! I don't pay the charge but if I was eligible then I'd REALLY have to think long and hard about leaving. It's up to you- people don't have to pay witrose prices but they do for some reason, others would sooner save the money and go to tesco.