Stay with first direct?

YorkshireBoy

ccdorset wrote: »

Will save me about £9 a month off my Mobile Insurance alone.

£108 a year to insure a mobile phone!

I bought my Motorola Moto G for a couple of quid and some Tesco Clubcard vouchers. For my £9 a month (OK it's £10, but it's just for illustration!) I get 750 minutes, 2Gb of data, and 5000 texts.

And if it's lost or stolen, my maximum liability is £10 (the capped monthly charge).

I suppose we all have different priorities!

ccdorset

YorkshireBoy wrote: »

£108 a year to insure a mobile phone!

I bought my Motorola Moto G for a couple of quid and some Tesco Clubcard vouchers. For my £9 a month (OK it's £10, but it's just for illustration!) I get 750 minutes, 2Gb of data, and 5000 texts.

And if it's lost or stolen, my maximum liability is £10 (the capped monthly charge).

I suppose we all have different priorities!

Haha, yeah it does seem a lot doesn't it. i've got the iPhone 5S 64GB which at the time would have cost about £600 to replace if it was stolen etc, so I felt the need to take out the insurance. Am considering choosing a much cheaper handset next time!

ccdorset

Following on from this, I've now made the decision that switching to Co-op then M&S and then Halifax is a bit too much hassle for me. To keep things simple I think for the time being I would just like to settle on one main account. So it's down to either staying with first direct, moving to Halifax Reward or having the Nationwide Flex Plus account that I've just opened as my main account.

I do have a loan with first direct, so I'm not sure if I can actually close that account. But if I can't do that, can I actually switch to Halifax?

Any opinions would be greatly appreciated!

thebritishbloke

ccdorset wrote: »

I do have a loan with first direct, so I'm not sure if I can actually close that account. But if I can't do that, can I actually switch to Halifax?

You can't switch without closing the account. I'd contact First Direct and ask them if you have to keep the account open.

Archi_Bald

Open a second current account at FD, and then switch that one.

ccdorset

Ok thank you. If it was a choice between switching to Halifax or Nationwide what would you go for? I'm thinking about moving my loan as it's on 6.1% with first direct and Nationwide offer 4.2%. Obviously I know I won't be guaranteed that rate and would have to do the soft search to determine that first. But then on the other hand Halifax does have the £5 per month reward.

colsten

ccdorset wrote: »

Ok thank you. If it was a choice between switching to Halifax or Nationwide what would you go for? I'm thinking about moving my loan as it's on 6.1% with first direct and Nationwide offer 4.2%. Obviously I know I won't be guaranteed that rate and would have to do the soft search to determine that first. But then on the other hand Halifax does have the £5 per month reward.

What are the T&Cs of your loan? Can you pay back more than the monthly minimum without any penalties? If there are penalties, what are they? How much is there left to be paid back? How much extra a month, or in a lump sum, can you afford to pay back?

If you have a loan, there is most likely no point in putting any money into an account that pays interest. The interest rate on the loan will be a lot higher than the interest you can get in an account that pays interest.

The Halifax Reward doesn't pay interest, it pays what they term a reward. Meaning you do not have to leave money in the account to earn the reward - all you have to do is meet the conditions for the reward (£750 monthly deposits, 2 monthly paying DDs, keep in credit for the entire month). If you can meet the conditions whilst paying back your loan, and if you have a decent credit history, it is definitely worth applying for this account.

ccdorset wrote: »

would have to do the soft search

how would you do a soft search?

EDIT: reading your posts again, I am not sure we are on the same page. On the one hand, you are talking about switching accounts, on the other hand, you say you have a loan that you'd like to switch from FD to Halifax.

Account switching is only available for current accounts, not for loans.

Can you add some clarity please on what it is you want to do, and why?

YorkshireBoy

colsten wrote: »

how would you do a soft search?

Nationwide will search applicants' credit files and make an offer/APR. If you then accept this offer they turn the quotation (ie unrecorded) search into a full credit search.


Quite a few lenders adopting this approach these days. I think it's as a result of pressure from the regulators so people can shop around for the best deals without being penalised in the form of damaged credit files due to the number of recent searches.

colsten

YorkshireBoy wrote: »

Nationwide will search applicants' credit files and make an offer/APR. If you then accept this offer they turn the quotation (ie unrecorded) search into a full credit search.


Quite a few lenders adopting this approach these days. I think it's as a result of pressure from the regulators so people can shop around for the best deals without being penalised in the form of damaged credit files due to the number of recent searches.

Thanks for this information, YB. Does this only apply to loans, or to any applications, incl. current accounts, and do all providers offer this? I have applied for many current accounts recently and none of them appeared to offer any 'soft' search. Haven't applied for loans, so not sure what the terms for credit searching are there.

If ccdorset is looking to "switch" loans, then quite obviously a cheaper loan would make more sense than a more expensive one.....but there is no such thing as a guaranteed switch. It might also be the wrong forum to discuss this matter.

ccdorset

colsten wrote: »

EDIT: reading your posts again, I am not sure we are on the same page. On the one hand, you are talking about switching accounts, on the other hand, you say you have a loan that you'd like to switch from FD to Halifax.

Account switching is only available for current accounts, not for loans.

Can you add some clarity please on what it is you want to do, and why?

Thanks for the info and sorry for the delay in reply, I've been abroad.


Apologies for the confusion, yes I'm looking to switch my current account to the best account for my needs. I understand the best thing to do would be to switch to Co-Op, M&S and Halifax to get all the switching incentives, however I've decided that would be too much hassle for me and would just prefer to switch to the best account possible now. So for me the choice is to switch my banking to either Halifax Reward or Nationwide FlexPlus (which I have already opened for the packaged benefits). The other option is to just stay put with first direct.


I have a loan with first direct, which one of the conditions of getting the loan was to have a first direct account. I will contact them to see if I still need to keep the account open to make the payments to the loan from. However what I was also considering was switching my loan, currently at 6.1%, to Nationwide at 4.2% (if I got offered that rate on the soft search). I am allowed to repay early and I believe the penalty is one month's interest.


I'm thinking it maybe easier just to have the account with Nationwide Flex Plus and attempt to move my loan to them as well. However I realise money wise Halifax is probably the best account as I would receive the £5 monthly reward. I don't have savings and have credit cards to repay, so in-credit interest rates wouldn't be a concern of mine. The other option of course is just to stay with first direct and have the separate account with Nationwide FlexPlus for the benefits.


I just really wanted to make things simpler and have one current account if possible. I'm not really keen on having 3 or more accounts.


I guess it will come down to my personal decision really, but I was just after opinions of others before I make a decision.


Thanks again for your help.