First Direct ISA

Vortigern

Richchad wrote: »

I am thinking of opening a First Direct 1st Bank account

Have I got it right that we need to open a savings account (joint I guess) pay in £1.

Then open a 1st bank account, again joint, pay in just once £1500.

This should avoid the £10 per month fee and having to pay in £1500 each month??

Then we could open a cash ISA each and transfer from our other ISA accounts

Not quite right. You won't be able to open a saver before you have a current account.

First open a current account with first direct
- use their switching service if you want the £100 incentive
Then open your ISA(s)
There's no banking fee in your first 6 months and no banking fee if you have an ISA.
You could also then use their regular saver account.

Go for a joint current account if both partners want an ISA or if both want a regular saver

Richchad

Vortigern wrote: »

Not quite right. You won't be able to open a saver before you have a current account.

First open a current account with first direct
- use their switching service if you want the £100 incentive
Then open your ISA(s)
There's no banking fee in your first 6 months and no banking fee if you have an ISA.
You could also then use their regular saver account.

Go for a joint current account if both partners want an ISA or if both want a regular saver

Okay great, so if I open a joint current account first, then we open an ISA each we avoid any fees, so don't need to bother with the regular saving account or switching service as don't want to transfer DD etc.

Do I need to keep a minimum balance in the current account?

Many thanks Vortigern

Any

Richchad wrote: »

Okay great, so if I open a joint current account first, then we open an ISA each we avoid any fees, so don't need to bother with the regular saving account or switching service as don't want to transfer DD etc.

Do I need to keep a minimum balance in the current account?

Many thanks Vortigern

I certainly don't keep a balance, we keep putting £1500 in every month (which soon disappear as mortgage etc gets paid)
You don't need to "bother" with their regular saver, but apart from my S&S Isa I didn't find one paying higher interest..
That is why it was recommended. Not that you have to have it.

unlockk

Richchad wrote: »

4% until 31st October 2013 if you opened last October like I did

I have switched to 4% Vantage last year too. I think it was a great offer in these times of record low interest rates. The only downside is no interest on balances of 6k+.

Vortigern

Richchad wrote: »

Do I need to keep a minimum balance in the current account?

There's no minimum balance. You'll get a free overdraft of £250 so you could use that as your target minimum. And yes, the regular saver at 6% is a bonus, not a requirement.

Richchad

Thanks everyone for the replies, we have opened a joint current account successfully and awaiting passwords etc for online access to enable opening our cash ISAs.

LeafGreen

I have done this recently Richchad.

I opened the current account online, then phoned to register for telephone banking which I think you have to do (think of a password in advance :-) ). Once that was all done, they gave me the codes I needed to register for internet banking. So I did that, and then was able to open the cash ISA online - all of the above was done same day. So I suggest you give them a ring.

I am transferring into the ISA, and have fully used up my 2012/13 allowance, so cannot even pay £1 in until 6th April. I had to phone them to make sure this was OK as the website referred to a £1 minimum, but it lets you check a "transferring in" tick box and proceed without putting a transfer amount in.