Leaving FIRST DIRECT for the £100 incentive?

rolstherat

juanmanuelmarquez wrote: »

in long term wise, FD would not benefit me other than the incentive of joining and leaving so i joined. i also have a hsbc, barclays, halifax, and now nationwide and first direct.

my reason for leaving FD would be that the £10 monthly fee seemed ok when joining as depositing the £1k per month seemed feasible, however, now its not and i dont think i should pay £10 a month or open up a savings when im not saving, and and unable to deposit the required amount for anything that a normal current account should charge for...as there are lots of current accounts that offer the same facilities and dont charge a penny...i think this is a valid excuse!...or does it suck?

Do you satisfy their leaving conditions if you have been paying in 1k?

'as long as a monthly salary or income of £1500 or more has been paid into that account for at least six months '

penrhyn

The monthly fee waiver has been reduced from £1500, to £1000 per month.
From May FD customers will be able to withdraw cash and pay in cheques a the Post Office.

chile_paul

I just closed my FD account - requesting closure by sending them an automated message within my First Direct account stating that I was moving my account elsewhere. I didn't here any response from them at all, but my card was cancelled and I could no longer access my online account.

I called them to check whether my account was closed and to ask where my £100 closing fee was and they said that because I hadn't stated within my message that I was closing under the service guarantee they wouldn't pay the £100 - so make sure you send them a message clearly stating this!

However, I then said that I wasn't happy that nobody had contacted me to advise of the account closure and also complained that they didn't make it clear in the T's & C's that I had to request the £100 and so on that basis they've promised to send me a cheque for the full £100. Fingers crossed that it turns up!

landsker

So the best way is to make sure that your new bank WILL accept you first and then, the same or next day, send the secure message to FD?
I can fund the new bank from another source to cover the transition period.
I am thinking of Halifax for the ton intro. and a fiver a month, plus the one-er leaving pressie from FD. That's £200 off my Tesco 0% credit card! I don't need loans, mortgages, credit cards et al.
Halifax are a pain though, in that a joint account cannot be opened on-line, only in-branch.

meer53

landsker wrote: »

So the best way is to make sure that your new bank WILL accept you first and then, the same or next day, send the secure message to FD?
I can fund the new bank from another source to cover the transition period.
I am thinking of Halifax for the ton intro. and a fiver a month, plus the one-er leaving pressie from FD. That's £200 off my Tesco 0% credit card! I don't need loans, mortgages, credit cards et al.
Halifax are a pain though, in that a joint account cannot be opened on-line, only in-branch.

Make sure you have a reason for leaving. The £100 is only paid if you're not happy with FD.

Archi_Bald

landsker wrote: »

Halifax are a pain though, in that a joint account cannot be opened on-line, only in-branch.

Who told you that? Did you verify this with the Halifax website?

landsker

Well - we (jointly) switched to Halifax and after just under 3 months, I am very happy with them.
The switching itself, after the slight inconvenience of a branch visit, as we wanted a joint account, went very smoothly indeed.
The only slight hiccup was a delay in my wife receiving her debit card. I still believe that it became lost in the post, as every other communication from Halifax arrived promptly.
The website is a delight to use after experiencing Yorkshire Bank, HSBC & First Direct.
Our £5 per month reward has arrived as promised and the staff in-branch have been helpfulness itself.
Our first paper statement arrived today and is clearly laid out and a source of more information than any of the three banks I have mentioned above.
As far as leaving First Direct is concerned. I contacted them by secure messaging AND snail mail. I said that under the terms of their service guarantee, I wished to transfer our account to another bank and I wished to claim the promised £100. No other reason was given or subsequently requested.
I received a reply to the effect that after transferring our account and providing it left no debit balance, a cheque would be sent for the £100 under the service guarantee.
A couple of weeks afterwards that cheque was received , banked and cleared.
Result.
I could not be happier with the process or the end achievement of £200 paid for very little effort., Add to that the £125 I received from my original switch to First Direct and that is a total of £325 paid in the last 12 months!
:j:j:j