Stay with first direct?

ccdorset

Sorry, forgot to add, I have approximately £7000 left to repay on my loan and £3800 on credit cards.

Gram_Parsons

I successfully applied for a FD current account yesterday so I can now get the 6% regular saver. It says you have to phone them and register for telephone banking first before you can register for online banking. Can anyone remember what registering for telephone bamking entails so I can be prepared before I call?

Mr_Goodkat

You have no need to switch to FD to Nationwide as you already have the Nationwide account in place.


FD is good for £250 interest free OD, 6% regular saver and the service is very good. I am a big advocate of FD and use it as my 'main current account' but I do have 30+ and certainly don't store cash there.


You need to establish with FD if you have to have the FD current account to service the loan if you do you need to see if someone else e.g. Nationwide will give you a loan at a better rate and that this better rate works out better considering any penalties FD charge.


If you can either move the loan or don't have to retain a FD current account to service it then switch FD to Halifax Reward for £100 switch bonus plus £5 a month, transfer £750 into the Halifax every month and pay out two DD's switching the remaining money back to Nationwide as you will get 3% interest on up to £2,500.


If not already it would be worth applying for Nationwide Select credit card as has decent either balance transfer or purchase offers (I am currently enjoying 0% purchases for 15 months). The card also pays 0.5% cash back on all transactions and does not charge a fee for foreign currency card transactions.


It is also sensible to have current accounts with more than one financial institution as you are less exposed to technical issues e.g. both Nat West and Lloyds/Halifax have experienced significant outages in recent times so having access to money elsewhere is important.


Good luck

badger09

Gram_Parsons wrote: »

I successfully applied for a FD current account yesterday so I can now get the 6% regular saver. It says you have to phone them and register for telephone banking first before you can register for online banking. Can anyone remember what registering for telephone bamking entails so I can be prepared before I call?

My phone call to set up telephone banking in July took 23 minutes, but the CS assistant was very chatty

You have to select a telephone banking password - which will be different from the one used for online banking, which is different again from the one used for their Securekey :eek:

Then you need to give the answers to 5 security questions: DOB, memorable address, date etc. When you phone subsequently, they ask for random letters from the password and you must answer one of the security questions.

You can also 'register' for internet banking - which means they will send you their Securekey thingy so you can then properly register online, and also request text alerts if you want them.

To be honest, I found the whole set up process tedious and overcomplicated (and I have 20+ current and multiple regular saver accounts, so not exactly a novice )

However, I persevered because of the £125 switch incentive and 6% regular saver :T

HTH

Gram_Parsons

Thanks for that badger09, it meant I could be prepared as I tend to get flustered on the phone if I get asked anything I'm not expecting. I was on the phone for about 15 mins and no problems. The guy sounded like he was from the West of Scotland so at least in the same country as me! I'll never use telephone banking anyway, just the internet banking. Thanks again.

ccdorset

Mr_Goodkat wrote: »

You have no need to switch to FD to Nationwide as you already have the Nationwide account in place.


FD is good for £250 interest free OD, 6% regular saver and the service is very good. I am a big advocate of FD and use it as my 'main current account' but I do have 30+ and certainly don't store cash there.


You need to establish with FD if you have to have the FD current account to service the loan if you do you need to see if someone else e.g. Nationwide will give you a loan at a better rate and that this better rate works out better considering any penalties FD charge.


If you can either move the loan or don't have to retain a FD current account to service it then switch FD to Halifax Reward for £100 switch bonus plus £5 a month, transfer £750 into the Halifax every month and pay out two DD's switching the remaining money back to Nationwide as you will get 3% interest on up to £2,500.


If not already it would be worth applying for Nationwide Select credit card as has decent either balance transfer or purchase offers (I am currently enjoying 0% purchases for 15 months). The card also pays 0.5% cash back on all transactions and does not charge a fee for foreign currency card transactions.


It is also sensible to have current accounts with more than one financial institution as you are less exposed to technical issues e.g. both Nat West and Lloyds/Halifax have experienced significant outages in recent times so having access to money elsewhere is important.


Good luck

That is really helpful, thank you for the information.

So to summarise, the most sensible thing to do then would be to switch FD to Halifax to get the £5 reward (if I can service my FD loan from a non-FD account). Then transfer any remaining balance into the Nationwide Flex Plus to get the in-credit interest.

I was offered the Nationwide Select Credit card at the time of application with a credit limit of £3200, but stupidly didn't take them up on the offer. So I will see if I can still accept that.

Will also look into the loan in more detail.

Thank you again for your help. That was a really informative post and has helped a lot.

clara75

If you care about good overdraft facilities, the Halifax Reward isn't the best choice out there. I was with Halifax for a while and didn't like them, the £5 was not enough of an incentive for me. I do have my mortgage and contents insurance with them and that's more than enough

Also not sure I'd personally keep numerous bank accounts open, not sure what that does to credit rating, perhaps others know?

I'm a fan of both Barclays (their old Current Acct Plus, no longer available to new customers) and First Direct, for various reasons, so I decided to keep both accounts - just returned to FD after one year... will mainly be used for bills and salary, while Barclays will be used for everyday expenses.

Mr_Goodkat

ccdorset wrote: »

That is really helpful, thank you for the information.

So to summarise, the most sensible thing to do then would be to switch FD to Halifax to get the £5 reward (if I can service my FD loan from a non-FD account). Then transfer any remaining balance into the Nationwide Flex Plus to get the in-credit interest.

I was offered the Nationwide Select Credit card at the time of application with a credit limit of £3200, but stupidly didn't take them up on the offer. So I will see if I can still accept that.

Will also look into the loan in more detail.

Thank you again for your help. That was a really informative post and has helped a lot.

I am pleased my post was helpful.


Yes your plan above seems like a sensible approach.


Good luck

varunchadha2583

Hi All. I opened FD account last month, transferred across Nationwide account and have got the £100 bonus.
My question is can I transfer the FD account to co-operative now as they are also giving £100 for switching? I have only been with FD for 2 months, would that be a problem?

colsten

You sure can.