DRO and First Direct current account

The_mangler

Hi,
Apologies if this has already been answered elsewhere.
My husband has been advised by Step Change to go for a DRO. he opened up a current account in his name in October of last year because we suspected I was going bankrupt and knew our joint account with First Direct would not be allowed. Does anyone have any experience of First Direct with DROs? Are they likely to be nasty about this and make us try and find another bank (very difficult as we live rurally and have debts with Barclays)

wba31

The_mangler wrote: »

Hi,
Apologies if this has already been answered elsewhere.
My husband has been advised by Step Change to go for a DRO. he opened up a current account in his name in October of last year because we suspected I was going bankrupt and knew our joint account with First Direct would not be allowed. Does anyone have any experience of First Direct with DROs? Are they likely to be nasty about this and make us try and find another bank (very difficult as we live rurally and have debts with Barclays)

Unless you have any debts with HSBC or First Direct group then you dont need to inform them and there shouldnt be any problems with them

The_mangler

No, no debts with them, Thanks for the reply (and boing boing)

meer53

It's more than likely they will contact you to close your account. Very few banks offer accounts to customers in this position. You'll need to discuss it with them.

UpToMyNeckInIt

Hi Mangler,

I totally disagree with the advice you have received here.

Based on my experience (and reports from dozens of other insolvent forum members), HSBC group are notoriously unsympathetic to those of us who are insolvent (in an IVA in my case).

I too opened an account with First Direct (they are not a creditor). Timeline: July 2012 - opened account; August 2012, got my £100 joining incentive; and November 2012 - Phone call from FD: 'We do not offer banking facilities to those who are insolvent, and hereby give you 60 Day's notice to find alternative banking'.

Just finished swapping over all the direct debits etc. yesterday.

I had never told them about my IVA, nor had ever been overdrawn etc. I understand that they routinely trawl the Insolvency Register searching against new customer names.

I didn't believe it when I first heard it either.

Oh well, at least I got £100 out of them.

wba31

meer53 wrote: »

It's more than likely they will contact you to close your account. Very few banks offer accounts to customers in this position. You'll need to discuss it with them.

Firstly HSBC/First Direct have already given the account, the account stands. First Direct will not be notified of a DRO being awarded, nor are you under any duty to do so. If they did find out, they may close the account, but I've not heard of that happening thus far.
Banks will behave differently in IVAs and Bankruptcy than they do in Debt Relief Orders. To double check this you mention that you have had advice from Step Change. I believe they have a DRO team you can call on a freephone number and ask...

P.S. Boing Boing