Warning - First Direct

Lydia42

Hi
Just a quick warning in case anyone might be caught out. I currently have a bank account with First Direct and a linked every day saver account. I recently had a letter to say the saver was dormant and would be closed if they didn't hear from me. I called them to say this was fine and to credit the few pounds in it to the current account as i no longer needed the saver. They told me if i closed the saver account i would be liable to a £10 monthly bank account fee as i wouldn't have any other products with them. Fair play to them for telling me and i have now asked for the account to be re-instated and let it sit there now, but thought i would warn anyone in case they
were in a similar situation and left their savers to be closed automatically.

eskbanker

Lydia42 wrote: »

They told me if i closed the saver account i would be liable to a £10 monthly bank account fee as i wouldn't have any other products with them.

That's not quite true though, as there are other ways of avoiding the £10 monthly fee, as per https://www1.firstdirect.com/1/2/banking/current-account:

you can avoid paying the £10 monthly account fee by:

• paying at least £1,000 into the account every month
• or maintaining an average monthly balance of £1,000
• or also having a mortgage, credit card, Personal Loan, savings (except Regular Saver), First Directory or Home Insurance with us.

Nicholas

Lydia42 wrote: »

Hi
I recently had a letter to say the saver was dormant and would be closed if they didn't hear from me.

When you say 'dormant' do you mean that the account was completely empty ie £0.00? Or did you have a small amount eg £1 in it and just left it there for more than 12 months?

Edit: Just re-read your post and you had a few pounds in it. :embarrassed

Just to clarify.- how long was the account without any activity before they considered it dormant?

xylophone

I keep my FD for the 5% regular saver - I have set up a SO on the current account to pay a couple of pounds every month into the E saver - I move most of the money in the E saver out into a better paying account every few months.

bubieyehyeh

The FD 5% regular saver puts the proceeds into the esaver on maturity and this has so far kept the account active for me. After maturity I leave £1 in it, for the next 12 months.