first direct opening account advice please

chili1496

ok i am a completenovice when it comes to bank accounts etc so i need some advice.
i was looking to open a savers account with first direct the 6% one would be ideal to put money away for my son each month, so i clicked apply, unfortunatly i need to open a first direct 1st account and use the switching service and deposit £1000 a month etc etc.

my question is can i open a current account with first direct without switching anything over and without depositing the minimum £1000 per month, basically just open an account and whack a few quid in it whenever i fancy.

thanks

ColdIron

You don't have to switch or transfer anything to get a 1st Account if you also have another FD 'qualifying product'. Their e-Saver savings account is a qualifying product. When you complete the 1st Account application form tick the 'Open e-Saver' box and when it's open fund it with a pound.

chili1496

i do not have any first direct products at the moment. this is what they say i must do

Not yet a customer?

To open a Regular Saver Account you will also need to open a first direct 1st Account, our current account.

meer53

You apply for a 1st Account and tick the box to open an E Saver account at the same time. Once the 1st Account is open, then apply for the Regular Saver account.

As per ColdIrons post above.

ColdIron

That's right, so open a 1st Account and e-Saver at the same time as above

Edit: meer53 beat me to it
Once you have the 1st Account you can open the Regular Saver on the phone and they will set up a standing order

For clarity, you will end up with 3 accounts
1) The 1st Account - use it to transfer cash into for the Standing Order
2) An e-Saver with a pound in it - ignore this
3) The Regular Saver you want

chili1496

thanks for the help

chili1496

never bothered for now. they give you £100 to switch your banking to them but they charge you £10 per month to run the account, so in fact your £20 worse off or am i looking at it wrong?

robotrobo

chili1496 wrote: »

never bothered for now. they give you £100 to switch your banking to them but they charge you £10 per month to run the account, so in fact your £20 worse off or am i looking at it wrong?

.

you are wrong!, when you put a £1 in the e-saver , then you get free banking , so the £10 is waverd!.

also like you i have in the last 3 months just opened the same accounts before the recent changes, & like you a novice.

also what i learnt was the £1000 deposit is a one off payment & you have no need to deposit this amount every month, the rule when i applied was as long as the £1000 was paid in the first 3 months of opening , then that is all that is required, once the £1000 is paid in you can withdraw it or part of it as required .

it seems complicated at first, but like others have said.
first account.
esaver £1.
regular saver.

you only need to give f/d 2 d/debits or s/orders, thats what i did & i have just recieved my £125 joining incentive.

i hope this helps.

chili1496

robotrobo wrote: »

.

you are wrong!, when you put a £1 in the e-saver , then you get free banking , so the £10 is waverd!.

also like you i have in the last 3 months just opened the same accounts before the recent changes, & like you a novice.

also what i learnt was the £1000 deposit is a one off payment & you have no need to deposit this amount every month, the rule when i applied was as long as the £1000 was paid in the first 3 months of opening , then that is all that is required, once the £1000 is paid in you can withdraw it or part of it as required .

it seems complicated at first, but like others have said.
first account.
esaver £1.
regular saver.

you only need to give f/d 2 d/debits or s/orders, thats what i did & i have just recieved my £125 joining incentive.

i hope this helps.

thanks for this reply yes it does help

The_pc_tech

I am an FD customer and had to take a pay cut a couple of years back that put me a little below the 1500 minimum funding requirement (now reduced to 1000 a month) so rang them and was assured that as I had the savings account the fee would be waived.

I've opened a secondary 1st account since then for bills and I'm not charged a fee on that either.

Would say they are about the best of the banks I've ever dealt with service wise and wouldn't switch my main account away from them now.

xerces1

I was tempted to get a FD account but concerned about the earnings threshold so this post has really helped me, thanks. So to be clear, if you get an eligible product like the e-saver they waiver the £10pm fee?

Since being married several years ago we kept our 2 accounts with one of the main high street banks but just made each other joint holders. Our joint income is well in excess of the min requirement but our wages go into the separate accounts. Mine (the larger) pays the mortgage DD and tops up her account (part time, much smaller income, less than £1000 pm) which bills and food come out of. So while mine is always in the black (by at least another mortgage payment), hers is always in the red and I periodically top it up. We end up regularly paying 20-40pm in overdraft fees so we're clearly doing something wrong but I guess I've always been scared of having a single account incase we were to ever bring the balance so low that it cant make a mortgage payment. So in a sense, the fact that money is always tight on the "main" account where the bills come out makes me feel like it carries an incentive to never go too far into the red while the "mortgage" account always has some spare capacity.

Does that make sense? What advice would you guys give? What would you do? I'm keen to switch us to FD but I'm more wondering about how to restructure the way we manage our bank accounts.

cheers.