MSE News: First Direct opens current account to lower incomes

karlie88

innovate wrote: »

Not true.

You do not need a salary of £x to get the £100. You just need to pay in £1.5K (£1K soon) a month and use their switcher service to transfer at least 2 DDs if you want the £100.

Could I confirm if this is 100% true?

My mum's income is from her savings account and associated interest. She's always wanted to join FD but thought she had to transfer a salary over.

Could she just pay in £1000 from her savings account (to get the £100 incentive) and then open up an FD savings account and stick £1 in to avoid the £10 monthly fee?

Gromitt

juanmanuelmarquez wrote: »

i did plan on switching to FD, when i switched to halifax, but the switching advisor of FD said i would need a mandated salary of atleast £1.5k a month via BGC otherwise i wont get the £100 incentive.....

I'm sure people here will tell you otherwise, as they have claimed the £100 even though no BGC of £1.5K has been deposited.

karlie88

juanmanuelmarquez wrote: »

i did plan on switching to FD, when i switched to halifax, but the switching advisor of FD said i would need a mandated salary of atleast £1.5k a month via BGC otherwise i wont get the £100 incentive.....

This is what I was told too when I joined.

.1xp

I doubt they have become more flexible with past people that ran in to trouble.

When I was stupid and young I ended up in an IVA, well over 8 years have passed and they have informed me that I would never be able to bank with them again at any point now or in the future.

I think it's a little harsh really, considering people grow up and learn from their past mistakes.

ElleWoods

My monthly salary is £859 but with child benefit, tax credits etc I have income of over £1000 coming in - will I be able to move my account from HSBC to them? Or will I literally have to earn a monthly salary of £1k? It's very unclear.

typistretired

Got the letter from them today about their 4 changes to accounts.
They state they are changing from 1st May Banking fee waiver so you do not have to pay the banking fee if you pay in or maintain a balance of £1,000 in your 1st Account each month. No mention of salary etc. Like other posters on here I have other savings accounts with them which also waives any fees.
From the 8th May First Direct customers will be able to use the Post Office branches across the uk, but not the channel islands and Isle of Man to withdraw cash, pay in cash or cheques and check your current account balances.

Gromitt

SoftKittyWarmKitty wrote: »

My monthly salary is £859 but with child benefit, tax credits etc I have income of over £1000 coming in - will I be able to move my account from HSBC to them? Or will I literally have to earn a monthly salary of £1k? It's very unclear.

All you have to do is get accepted for the account, and since you have income of 1K, I don't see the problem. How its deposited in the bank after you have been accepted they don't care about.

If you think your income will ever drop below 1K then open an E-Saver and stick £1 in it to avoid the banking fee.

juanmanuelmarquez

Gromitt wrote: »

All you have to do is get accepted for the account, and since you have income of 1K, I don't see the problem. How its deposited in the bank after you have been accepted they don't care about.

If you think your income will ever drop below 1K then open an E-Saver and stick £1 in it to avoid the banking fee.

but when do they pay you the £100 incentive? is that after a few months, when did you get yours? i know halifax paid mine straight away when my account was opened, but took ages sorting out my DDs and standing orders, they made a right mess of them!
would it be better to do an online application, as each time when i ring them up, they always say i need to have a salary of £1.5k to qualify for the incentive otherwise i wont get the £100?, but if your saying they are like halifax and as long as i deposit £1k within one month they wont care....but on the MSE site, it states that i would need to keep 3 months worth of wages in or £3k before i can withdraw? dont know why?

redux

I don't care, as I have no intention of ever opening an account there.

I applied to open a TESSA savings account there in the 1990s.

About a year and a half later, for about 6 months, they started sending me patronising letters that suggested that as I was obviously too busy to make the effort to apply for their bank account, actually paradoxicallly they were the ideal bank for me as they could take care of things better than other banks.

I phoned up. I was on hold for 23 minutes before speaking to someone.

I said I had not applied for their ordinary bank account, so I was mystified at their highly patronising insults about my laziness. And as they were obviously too busy to make the effort to send me details of the product I'd actually asked for by now two years earlier, and it was now no longer as attractive as it was at the time I enquired, perhaps they would just this once make a slight effort and delete me from their inaccurate junk mailing list.

I told some friends who thought First Direct was marvellous, and they were astonished.

innovate

juanmanuelmarquez wrote: »

.but on the MSE site, it states that i would need to keep 3 months worth of wages in or £3k before i can withdraw? dont know why?

I don't think it says that anywhere. What it says is "You'll need to credit £1,000 for at least three months before you get the cash though. "

Which isn't entirely correct, according to the FD website. Also, the MSE article does not state that you need to use the FD Switcher Service, which the FD website says you have to.

Now, MSE might know something that the people who maintain the FD website don't know, but if I were you, I would follow what it says on the FD website.