First direct as a second current account?

innovate

YorkshireBoy wrote: »

I have 13 current accounts at the moment - all managed online, and have probably managed well over 120 bank, savings, and credit card accounts online over the last 8-10 years...and never had a problem.

The risk to me is insignificant, so long as you apply some common sense and take reasonable precautions.

Similar numbers for me. Without online facilities this wouldn't even be possible, and online doesn't have to be unsafe.

YorkshireBoy

redonion wrote: »

You mean it'll mess up the regular saver benefits? Hmm. Does it have to be so regular and precise that bank holidays and weekends matter, then?

You were talking about paying your salary into FD and then setting up a SO to send most of it back to LTSB.

You wouldn't want these SOs set up for the same day, unless you had an O/D facility on the FD account at least equal to your salary less £300.

So you'd set up the SO for a day after your salary hits. Now if a weekend or Bank Holiday got in the way your outbound SO could be delayed by up to 4 days (Easter and Xmas for example).

So what I'm saying is that by making manual transfers (ie immediate FPs) yourself, you are in complete control of where your money is at any one time.

It works for me.

innovate

redonion wrote: »

You mean it'll mess up the regular saver benefits? Hmm. Does it have to be so regular and precise that bank holidays and weekends matter, then?

Your Regular Saver must be fed by SO from your First Direct Current Account. Therefore you must have money in it in time for the SO to execute.

redonion wrote: »

But I've not actually tried it or read the fine print. Anybody done that?

Given you can open a new Reg Saver as soon as the old one matures, I think it would defy logic to close the FD accounts to get the £100 leaving bonus. Certainly as long as their Reg Saver interest rate is as attractive as it is currently.

redonion

jonesMUFCforever wrote: »

There should be no problem as long as you do not have a large o/d facility with Lloyds.

I think I do have a relatively large o/d facility (don't have the number to hand, unfortunately). I don't need it right now, but don't want to throw it away either.

How about if I pay most of my salary into LTSB still, just via f/d rather than direct from my employer? Is that likely to trigger me losing that facility?

Why am I worrying, I bet if I ever got into financial trouble they'd whisk away the o/d facility within moments :mad:

jonesMUFCforever

YorkshireBoy wrote: »

Even if the OP has though, it seems as though they'll be transferring all but £300 of their salary back to LTSB.

Unless LTSB's systems are clever enough to distinguish between a BACS Direct Credit and an FP (for £300 less than it was last month and the month before)?

Sorry I read it as though he was only going to leave £300 in the Lloyds account - my mistake.

redonion

YorkshireBoy wrote: »

So you'd set up the SO for a day after your salary hits. Now if a weekend or Bank Holiday got in the way your outbound SO could be delayed by up to 4 days (Easter and Xmas for example).

Ah, OK. Don't think that's a problem for me, my balance tends to be high enough for the precise day my salary is paid in not to be an issue.

rb10

redonion wrote: »

I think I do have a relatively large o/d facility (don't have the number to hand, unfortunately). I don't need it right now, but don't want to throw it away either.

How about if I pay most of my salary into LTSB still, just via f/d rather than direct from my employer? Is that likely to trigger me losing that facility?

Why am I worrying, I bet if I ever got into financial trouble they'd whisk away the o/d facility within moments :mad:

It is unlikely that what you propose would have any impact on your overdraft facility.

redonion

innovate wrote: »

Your Regular Saver must be fed by SO from your First Direct Current Account. Therefore you must have money in it in time for the SO to execute.

Right, but as long as there's a sufficient lag between pay in and SO out, that should be fine, as I understand it.

Given you can open a new Reg Saver as soon as the old one matures, I think it would defy logic to close the FD accounts to get the £100 leaving bonus. Certainly as long as their Reg Saver interest rate is as attractive as it is currently.

True. It wouldn't defy logic if you could get both (well, not my self-interested logic; theirs is another question). But you can't, so that's that.

redonion

YorkshireBoy wrote: »

I have 13 current accounts at the moment - all managed online, and have probably managed well over 120 bank, savings, and credit card accounts online over the last 8-10 years...and never had a problem.

Wow, 13 accounts.

The risk to me is insignificant, so long as you apply some common sense and take reasonable precautions.

How do you know? It's in the nature of most risks that, individually, it's more likely than not won't happen, but that doesn't mean they should be ignored. I'm not saying you're wrong, though. I guess I'd be more interested if you DID have problems, and found they weren't a disaster.

Having said that, I find myself now considering opening two additional current accounts! Albeit to be used in very constrained ways. So I guess I'm gradually heading in your direction.

rb10

redonion wrote: »

How do you know? It's in the nature of most risks that, individually, it's more likely than not won't happen, but that doesn't mean they should be ignored. I'm not saying you're wrong, though. I guess I'd be more interested if you DID have problems, and found they weren't a disaster.

In three years working in a branch of a high street bank, I came across only two online banking fraud cases.

In the first, the bank recognised that it wasn't a genuine login, and so blocked online banking. (The customer had to come to a branch with ID to reset it).

In the second, the customer admitted having replied to a phishing email with her bank login details. Several thousand pounds was taken from her accounts with the bank, but they still refunded the money, in full, within 24 hours.

Online banking fraud doesn't happen very often. And when it does, banks tend to be quick to sort it out. Many even go so far as to guarantee that you won't lose out (e.g. Nationwide and Halifax)