Pre-notified bank charges - First Direct NB

cc120

Hi Folk

Queried 2 x monthly payments of £10 on my First Direct current account which stated: Pre-notified chque. Called FD and friendly,helpful customer service advised that if £1000 isn't going in to account monthly OR you don't use another FD service, eg savings account, iris, the £10 debit will be made every month.

I thought I had a savings account, but it seems this was closed, due to not being used for a long period, last November. The customer adviser set up a new savings account which I am to use regularly, only small sums eg £5 need to be paid in, transferred back to 1st account to show usage of account, every now and then.

She then put me through to bank charges department, thankfully she explained my situation to them first so I didn't have to go through the whole story again, and they kindly informed me that both charges of £10 will be reimbursed on this occasion, though it was explained to me that this isn't the usual policy.

So please be sure to look out for these charges and ensure you have another account set up to avoid them.

bigadaj

cc120 wrote: »

Hi Folk

Queried 2 x monthly payments of £10 on my First Direct current account which stated: Pre-notified chque. Called FD and friendly,helpful customer service advised that if £1000 isn't going in to account monthly OR you don't use another FD service, eg savings account, iris, the £10 debit will be made every month.

I thought I had a savings account, but it seems this was closed, due to not being used for a long period, last November. The customer adviser set up a new savings account which I am to use regularly, only small sums eg £5 need to be paid in, transferred back to 1st account to show usage of account, every now and then.

She then put me through to bank charges department, thankfully she explained my situation to them first so I didn't have to go through the whole story again, and they kindly informed me that both charges of £10 will be reimbursed on this occasion, though it was explained to me that this isn't the usual policy.

So please be sure to look out for these charges and ensure you have another account set up to avoid them.

It's a well known criterion on these boards but useful to remind people of.

Also nice to have someone objectively commenting rather than ranting about evil banks.

The reimbursement of a charge for first offence is common practice for credit cards, but haven't heard of this for a bank account so well done and fair play to first direct for resolving it.

alanq

How long is a long period? The only activity on my Saver account has been the maturing funds from Regular Savers going in each year and being immediately withdrawn leaving £1.

It's naughty of them to close an account without first warning that they are about to do so.

EarthBoy

alanq wrote: »

How long is a long period? The only activity on my Saver account has been the maturing funds from Regular Savers going in each year and being immediately withdrawn leaving £1.

It's naughty of them to close an account without first warning that they are about to do so.

You're using the account once a year, so you should be OK. They closed an account of mine once, but it had a zero balance for over two years, so I wasn't surprised. I leave £1.00 in my savings account now, just to keep it open.

cc120

alanq wrote: »

How long is a long period? The only activity on my Saver account has been the maturing funds from Regular Savers going in each year and being immediately withdrawn leaving £1.

It's naughty of them to close an account without first warning that they are about to do so.

Hi alanq, I think it was about 5 years.
They may have dropped me a note with my statement but as a rule don't open statements as I access online.
You would probably OK with that level of activity, also this is assuming you don't pay in £1,000 a month in your current account that you would get the pre-notified debit.
Perhaps you should increase usage just incase.

cc120

EarthBoy wrote: »

You're using the account once a year, so you should be OK. They closed an account of mine once, but it had a zero balance for over two years, so I wasn't surprised. I leave £1.00 in my savings account now, just to keep it open.

You could give them a call to check, but you should get a warning before they close your account. I tend not to open paper statements unless I need them for something particular as I access online.

Vortigern

cc120 wrote: »

I tend not to open paper statements unless I need them for something particular as I access online.

Most banks try to encourage us to turn off paper statements. Why have you not done this? Do you put the un-opened statements in your bin?

cc120

Vortigern wrote: »

Most banks try to encourage us to turn off paper statements. Why have you not done this? Do you put the un-opened statements in your bin?

I sometimes need to provide statements copy and don't know if the online statements would date back indefinitely.