first direct regular saver 8% to be withdrawn

Chargem

typistretired wrote: »

Using the first direct calculator you should have received £128.69 gross.

Using this site's calculator for Regular Savings you should have received £128.47 gross.

The extra interest is because they probably never moved your savings out of the account the day it matured.

Thanks, glad to know I did get the correct amount of interest.

YorkshireBoy

Chargem wrote: »

Thanks, glad to know I did get the correct amount of interest.

Another option would have been to sense check your return with the example on the FD website.

That example uses £300 a month and returns £156 gross.

You were saving £250 a month...that's 5/6ths of their £300 a month example.

£156 x 5 / 6 = £130 gross

seriousDFW

This sucks - mine matures at the end of Feb too.

Perhaps they are planning to relaunch it at 10%.

OnlyMe_08

InsertWittyName wrote: »

As a new HSBC/FD customer (in the last month) I did everything electronically - except ringing them up to get setup for internet banking.

I also don't have my salary credit the account either, I just opened an e-saver and popped £1 in it.

So basically, to waive the monthly fee, all I have to do is open up a qualifying savings product such as the esaver and just leave it at the minimum opening balance?

Also, I understand that to get the £125 incentive, I would have to use their switching service - does that mean they would transfer ALL of my direct debits and write to my employer to change bank details?

InsertWittyName

OnlyMe_08 wrote: »

So basically, to waive the monthly fee, all I have to do is open up a qualifying savings product such as the esaver and just leave it at the minimum opening balance?

Also, I understand that to get the £125 incentive, I would have to use their switching service - does that mean they would transfer ALL of my direct debits and write to my employer to change bank details?

To mitigate the £10 per month fee for the First Account, you can hold an e-Saver with £1 in it instead (or other qualifying account).

However, for the switching bonus you do need to have all your Direct Debits moved across too and I believe you also have to use their dedicated switching service for it.

andrea_louise

OnlyMe_08 wrote: »

I'm interested in this but have a couple of questions.

Has anyone, not banking with HSBC and being a new customer to FD, successfully opened an account all done electronically?

When you have your monthly salary credit the account to satisfy their £1500, can you just move it out straight away?

I opened mine entirely online last February. As long as the £1500 goes into the account between the statement dates, it doesn't matter how long it is in for. The alternative is opening one of the savings accounts and popping a £1 in, then the fee is waived.

Customer service is outstanding. I ordered a Christmas present from Zavvi, for the little man on 1st December. It hadn't arrived by 20th, I called FD, and the money was credited immediately (no send us the tracking number by email, and forward all correspondence you have had with customer services - like I had to do with AmEx and a faulty mulberry handbag)

cwal

You don't need to move all your direct debits across, they will contact you with a list of them which they get from your current bank, you can then ring them (as i did) and tell them which ones you want to move and which ones you don't. I believe you need to move 2 to get the £125 bonus. They won't contact your employer either, if you want your salary paid in to your FD account you can give the new details to your employer, if you want to leave it where it is then you can, and just transfer over the money each month to the FD account. I opened my account in Dec and have to say the service has so far been very good, the whole process went very smoothly.

MoneySaverLog

seriousDFW wrote: »

This sucks - mine matures at the end of Feb too.

Perhaps they are planning to relaunch it at 10%.

I predict 5% either way it's going to drop

ColdIron

Surely no lower than HSBC at 6% unless they are changing as well, any HSBCers confirm this?

The FD 8% has been very good 'sprat to catch a mackerel' for getting new current account holders on board and I doubt it costs much in the grand scheme

Maybe a small reduction to 6% and a limit of £250 p/m

OnlyMe_08

Thanks for the replies.

If I applied today, will I know whether my application has been successful immediately?

How long would it take for them to send me details so I could log into my account online and apply for the Regular Saver? Will I be too late for this?

Also, what's their faster payments service like - what experiences have people had with limits etc?

Thanks.