First Direct 1st Account or Club Lloyds Current Account? Which to go for?

Turnipfarmer

I am wanting to change from my Halifax current account (the one you get £5 per month paid in) to either First Direct 1st Account or the Club Lloyds.

I am a little put off going with Lloyds having been with them in the past and their hit and miss customer service although the Club Lloyds package looks quite good.

However never been with First Direct, how do people find them to bank with and what do people think of their latest 1st Account with the 6% regular saver?

Part and parcel of wanting to change is to keep going with regular saver and these 'All in 1' packages look quite good for that, my Barclays regular saver matures next month and they are no longer carrying their regular saver on.

So really my question is, First Direct or Club Lloyds? What are the Pros and Cons of both? I am inclined to go with First Direct but just want to see peoples opinion.

eskbanker

First Direct seem to me to be like the Apple of the banking world in that they seem to attract devotees who won't hear a word said against them! Whether or not they are objectively the best depends on what you're really looking for, but access to the 6% regular saver is a good plus point.

However, why choose, there's nothing to stop you using all three, i.e. retain Halifax for the £5s, open FD for the regular saver and also the Club Lloyds for the interest (on your Barclays pot) and benefits....

colsten

FD are very good for their regular saver but not much use for anything else. They also pay you £100 if you switch to them, which you could interpret as desperation to get customers but it's fine if you know what you are doing.

Turnipfarmer wrote: »

what do people think of their latest 1st Account

their 'latest' account has been around since the year dot, and not really changed since then. It lets you make and receive payments ok but their online presence is ancient.

Club Lloyds are great if you can always keep a balance of between £4K and £5K, and their regular saver is a nice bonus.

Halifax are great for getting the monthly £5.

I have all 3 as each of them has distinct advantages that are all useful for me.

Turnipfarmer

Cheers for the advise guys, I wasn't aware you could get all three accounts although don't you need to make sure you have the minimum pay in per month and some direct debits coming out to qualify for the perks eg pay in £750 to Halifax per month to get the £5.

Do you guys just set up standing orders to keep the perks coming in and make sure you have direct debits come out.

I think I could manage two accounts like FD and Lloyd's club.

Say if I use the FD transfer service or even Lloyd's, doesn't this close down the account its transferring from?

YorkshireBoy

Turnipfarmer wrote: »

I wasn't aware you could get all three accounts although don't you need to make sure you have the minimum pay in per month and some direct debits coming out to qualify for the perks eg pay in £750 to Halifax per month to get the £5.

Yes to credits (where applicable, eg FD doesn't require any...after you've got the £100). Yes to DDs (where applicable).

Do you guys just set up standing orders to keep the perks coming in and make sure you have direct debits come out.

Same answer as above.

I think I could manage two accounts like FD and Lloyd's club.

Why not manage 3 and keep the Halifax free fivers coming in? After all, the DDs are already there.

Say if I use the FD transfer service or even Lloyd's, doesn't this close down the account its transferring from?

Yes, as per the information on their respective websites.

Turnipfarmer

Cheers Yorkshireboy.

In response to them closing it down using who ever transfer service how do I prevent them closing the account transferring it from, eg in the case of FD it would be nice to have the £100 transfer in.

Or do you mean, keep my Halifax open and just open a Lloyd's and FD account and just manage according according to their terms and conditions. Only trouble us doing it this way means I would lose the £100 transfer in from FD.

YorkshireBoy

Turnipfarmer wrote: »

In response to them closing it down using who ever transfer service how do I prevent them closing the account transferring it from, eg in the case of FD it would be nice to have the £100 transfer in.

If you use the CASS, then the old account is automatically closed.

Or do you mean, keep my Halifax open and just open a Lloyd's and FD account and just manage according according to their terms and conditions. Only trouble us doing it this way means I would lose the £100 transfer in from FD.

Open another bog standard Current Account at Halifax, and switch that to FD.


There's no opening/switching incentive for Club Lloyds, so that's an easy one.

Turnipfarmer

Having thinking about it, I'm not sure if I will be able to pay the minimum amounts each account requires to be able to get the perks that each account offers.

What do you guys do if you can't pay in the minimum?

Archi_Bald

Turnipfarmer wrote: »

What do you guys do if you can't pay in the minimum?

We all can, and you can too. You just cycle some money through all your accounts once a month (and make sure you comply with any other pre-reqs for interest/reward payments).

You might find it useful to read through the threads on the various accounts.

Everynamestaken

Turnipfarmer wrote: »

Having thinking about it, I'm not sure if I will be able to pay the minimum amounts each account requires to be able to get the perks that each account offers.

What do you guys do if you can't pay in the minimum?

Someone beat me to it.

Just cycle the same money around to each account. Some like to do standing orders, but I much prefer to do it manually on payday.

Turnipfarmer

Cool, gonna sort this out this week.

So just to clarify before I do it say for example I get paid my wages into my Halifax bank account then move £1500 into Lloyd's club then move £1000 into FD account and then back into Halifax if required. I always thought say if you pay £1500 into Lloyd's club and then that £1500 back into Halifax would that be classed as meeting the £1500 required or do they count that as £0?