first direct leaving bonus

Gizmo247

nuks wrote: »

Yup I meet the conditions - but I have to wait for another 4 months to close it.

Really, blacklisted forever, how do you know that? Does that apply to HSBC products as well?

Blacklisted - certainly, there are examples in these forums.
Forever - probably, they certainly remembered I had closed an ISA account more than 7 years ago and refused the £100 joining incentive. FD are fussy about their clients.
HSBC - probably not. I think they run separate systems.

Gizmo247

mrmajika wrote: »

This is not correct. You are pre-cluded from further bonus sign up offers, but there's nothing to stop you opening any FD product in the future. A search of these forums will confirm that there's people who have easily (re)opened a FD current account after successfully claiming the leaving bonus.

and I've seen posts that contradict that. Perhaps it is just pot luck.

100saving

The way i look at it is you may get the £100 leaving bonus but what is this really worth? all the hassle of going over the leaving process and losing the good reg.saving account and maybe not getting future good products.

i would think there's a some sort of internal system that does not accepted people who get the leaving bonus for a set amount of time on some products.

Gizmo247

I suspect some of it is the way one chooses to leave. If done in a uncivilized way (e.g. "what a rubbish bank, I wouldn't bank with you if you were the last bank on Earth! Now give me my money!") then perhaps your account is marked as barred.

For myself, I would not currently use FD as my main account due to their on line offering. It' just isn't feature rich enough for me but that is because it is positioned as a telephone banking bank. That hasn't stopped me from using it's brilliant and flexible offset mortgage to pay down my mortgage 15 year early. :-)

100saving

in some ways i agree with you about the FD online system. the Barclays online system is very good (i think anyway). however i do like how i can just log in to my FD account without any stupid card reader like Barclays and Nationwide etc.

innovate

100saving wrote: »

however i do like how i can just log in to my FD account without any stupid card reader like Barclays and Nationwide etc.

You can log into Nationwide w/o a card reader.

gwapenut

100saving wrote: »

in some ways i agree with you about the FD online system. the Barclays online system is very good (i think anyway). however i do like how i can just log in to my FD account without any stupid card reader like Barclays and Nationwide etc.

This is another thing I really don't like about FD online banking. There don't seem to be the additional layers of security that make me feel safe.

Example - I can log into Nationwide or Santander without using a card reader. I can make payments to my payees without using a card reader. But by god, if I want to set up a payment to someone new, I either need a card reader (NW) or need my mobile phone to authorise an SMS (Santander).

With Barclays, you either have to sign up for the card reader (which I refused) or set up each new payee in branch, in person. Sensible.

First Direct - once you're in, you're in, and the world is your oyster. Not sensible.

Sure you shouldn't be giving passwords away, but if you're unlucky enough to catch a new virus from a passing website before it has been detected by your AV software, the virus folk too have your login details, and the world is also their oyster.

I would be very very nervous holding any significant level of savings with FD until they improve their banking. I did ask whether it would be possible for my ISA not to show up online, and the guy told me it would be very secure. Tell me more, I said, and he just ran thru the password, school etc that FD use to protect you. So, not secure, then.

gwapenut

I am not convinced the maths of spurning the leaving bonus for the reg saver adds up at all.

Let's say you're earning 3% extra over the next best thing, a Vantage account. 3% extra x an average balance over the trickled year of £1500 (£250x12/2) is just £45 a year extra (a tiny bit more if you save at the very start of each month). For a basic rate tax payer that is worth just £36 extra, and for a higher rate tax payer just £27. This is why it does not seem worth the hassle to me.

That said, I did not leave them within my year, because I was impressed with their CS - I had an aside whinge in online messaging about the not being able to view a standing order nonsense, and someone range me back quite promptly to confirm it had been altered, and outline that their banking was going to be upgraded to fix SO visibility, once (then current) testing had completed. That indeed happened. Quite an impressive level of customer service given I briefly whinged without asking for it to be elevated or responded to, andn they proactively filed it as a complaint and dealt with it.

Compare that with other banks who don't respond to formal complaints properly ...

nuks

For now I've decided to keep the account -- mostly because of access to mortgage rates in the future. However, I'll give it a thought again when I approach the 6 months mark...

I do have three active current accts including this one, so not sure if I can handle that many accounts. I don't like setting up standing orders so I have to transfer money manually once a month.

On a different note, people are raving about FD customer service well it's good to have somebody pick up the phone right away however their easyswitch team managed to screw up the DD switch. They told me in writing it was scheduled for 4th of the month and they actually transferred all DDs on the 1st -the day all DDs were going out. Luckily I noticed and transferred money to cover the DDs right away. I haven't called them to complain yet, but I will..

100saving

I thought about leaving after a month but when you think about the big picture a £100 now or possible £1000s saved on a cheaper mortgage. i know what is the better one to risk