first direct opening account advice please

chili1496

what happens if you go ahead and open the 1st account and the e-saver account and you choose not too:-
a. deposit the £1000 at all
b. do not set up any direct debits or standing orders

and just treat the account as a secondary account with a view to making it a main account a few months down the road?

ColdIron

If you open the 1st account as described it will just be a secondary current account with nothing going on until you do something with it

Personally I wouldn't use it as my main account as it has no great features, no interest on balance etc. but it can be useful to have an additional account in case of problems such as we saw with NatWest recently. Many people open it to get access to other FD products

Re-reading your original post you talk about 'open a savers account with first direct the 6% one would be ideal to put money away for my son each month' but later say 'open an account and whack a few quid in it whenever i fancy'

The FD Regular saver would be great for your first point but no good for your second. If you are looking for an easy access savings account at 6% I'm afraid they don't exist (oh that they did )

Have a read of this to understand what a Regular Savings account really is, they can be very good but you need to understand what they do and how they differ from an ordinary savings account
http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/savings/best-regular-savings-accounts

rookiethegooner

if i was to switch with 2 direct debits could i just send the 1k from another external account using a standing order to meet the switching terms or does it need to be my salary?

innovate

Any £1K paid in will do. It does not have to be paid in via Standing Order. Just a faster payment will do.

But I believe you need to use their switcher service to set up 2 DD or SOs?

The_pc_tech

Yep just send the money in via a transfer.

If memory serves me correctly I moved my DDs manually when the account was set up and still got the 100 quid as I really wanted to get shot of my old bank ASAP however as that was 4 years ago it's worth checking the Ts and Cs.

While its true to say the 1st account has nothing particularly special about it I use it as my main account (and have a secondary one now I use for bills) as the customer service is superb IMO.

mgdavid

innovate wrote: »

Any £1K paid in will do. It does not have to be paid in via Standing Order. Just a faster payment will do.

But I believe you need to use their switcher service to set up 2 DD or SOs?

please ignore !

innovate

mgdavid wrote: »

please ignore !

ignore what?

ic

I spotted the other day that if you go via this link http://www.moneysupermarket.com/current-accounts/details/first-direct/first-direct-1st-account/0/?pageurl=/current-accounts/&area=expert-review&class=listing-table&position=1 you can get £125 cashback on opening the 1st account.

The_pc_tech

Yep looks like you have to transfer your income and use easyswitch now.

chili1496

well that was easier than i thought, all done online accepted straight away accounts created
did not use switching service apparently according to the woman i spoke with who helped set up the internet banking i have 2 months to switch so i get the £125 quid, not really bothered if i do or don't was after the savings account more than anything.