First Direct £100 switch offer is back

eskbanker

masonic said:

Katiehound said:

I can tell you that if you have EVER had a FirstDirect current a/c you will not qualify for the £100 switch offer.
 I wasted quite a bit of time on the phone trying to clarify that point.  I had such an account with them over 30 years ago!!! I pointed out that if they had info from then it was against Data protection as I did not sanction it. Waste of time.
 Of course I can still switch to them (without a golden welcome) Why would I do that? Oh, unless I claimed a £100 'goodbye'

At least one person has reported being let off the hook with this in a similar situation.

Had they opened a HSBC or M&S Bank current account on or after 1 January 2018 though?

colsten

eskbanker said:

masonic said:

Katiehound said:

I can tell you that if you have EVER had a FirstDirect current a/c you will not qualify for the £100 switch offer.
 I wasted quite a bit of time on the phone trying to clarify that point.  I had such an account with them over 30 years ago!!! I pointed out that if they had info from then it was against Data protection as I did not sanction it. Waste of time.
 Of course I can still switch to them (without a golden welcome) Why would I do that? Oh, unless I claimed a £100 'goodbye'

At least one person has reported being let off the hook with this in a similar situation.

Had they opened a HSBC or M&S Bank current account on or after 1 January 2018 though?

I don't think they had. The one report I remember seeing referred to an account that had been opened quite a few years ago.

masonic

eskbanker said:

masonic said:

Katiehound said:

I can tell you that if you have EVER had a FirstDirect current a/c you will not qualify for the £100 switch offer.
 I wasted quite a bit of time on the phone trying to clarify that point.  I had such an account with them over 30 years ago!!! I pointed out that if they had info from then it was against Data protection as I did not sanction it. Waste of time.
 Of course I can still switch to them (without a golden welcome) Why would I do that? Oh, unless I claimed a £100 'goodbye'

At least one person has reported being let off the hook with this in a similar situation.

Had they opened a HSBC or M&S Bank current account on or after 1 January 2018 though?

No they had not, but in their case they didn't even have boolean logic to fall back on.

colsten

superM said:

My other half will qualify?
She has an HSBC account which was opened before 2018. 
She previously received switching incentive from FD but it was before 2018 and acc was closed after receiving the incentive.
Worth a try but I have got feeling FD mught not accept her.

Generally you will not get an FD switch bonus if you ever had an FD account: "we can only offer this to people who haven’t previously held an account with us". Though if she wants to try regardless, let us know of the outcome.

Katiehound

masonic said:

Katiehound said:

I can tell you that if you have EVER had a FirstDirect current a/c you will not qualify for the £100 switch offer.
 I wasted quite a bit of time on the phone trying to clarify that point.  I had such an account with them over 30 years ago!!! I pointed out that if they had info from then it was against Data protection as I did not sanction it. Waste of time.
 Of course I can still switch to them (without a golden welcome) Why would I do that? Oh, unless I claimed a £100 'goodbye'

At least one person has reported being let off the hook with this in a similar situation.

Erm I don't know if I even want to try! 'cos I really don't want a FD a/c without the welcome £100!
 My M&S and HSBC were opened 2016/ 2015 so I would qualify there.
Of course all FD phone calls are recorded so I suspect even if there was wriggle room the person speaking to me could only say what they are told to say!! (ie EVER applies)

CricketLady

Hi All, I'm trying to encourage my daughter to become a switch tart now she is an adult.  She just switched her Nationwide account to a Nat West account and had the £125 incentive paid to her only last week - I think she should now switch to First Direct to get this offer but she thinks she might have to pay the £125 back to Nat West unless she stays with them and we can't find anything that tells us how long she should wait before she'd be able to keep the incentive (and obviously don't want to ask them!)  Does anyone have any idea how long she should wait?

eskbanker

CricketLady said:

Hi All, I'm trying to encourage my daughter to become a switch tart now she is an adult.  She just switched her Nationwide account to a Nat West account and had the £125 incentive paid to her only last week - I think she should now switch to First Direct to get this offer but she thinks she might have to pay the £125 back to Nat West unless she stays with them and we can't find anything that tells us how long she should wait before she'd be able to keep the incentive (and obviously don't want to ask them!)  Does anyone have any idea how long she should wait?

If the NatWest switch offer terms are silent regarding clawing back the incentive when closing the account within x days/weeks/months then they have no grounds on which to attempt to recover it....

adamp87

CricketLady said:

Hi All, I'm trying to encourage my daughter to become a switch tart now she is an adult.  She just switched her Nationwide account to a Nat West account and had the £125 incentive paid to her only last week - I think she should now switch to First Direct to get this offer but she thinks she might have to pay the £125 back to Nat West unless she stays with them and we can't find anything that tells us how long she should wait before she'd be able to keep the incentive (and obviously don't want to ask them!)  Does anyone have any idea how long she should wait?

I would advise she opens an account that doesn't pull a hard credit search like Starling and I think Monzo?

Then switch that account as FD will pull another hard search and maybe keep the Natwest account longterm to stabilise her account history on her report.

colsten

@CricketLady A proper 'tart' would want to keep the Natwest account as it is worth £36 a year, and open another donor account for switching to FD. Collect the FD switch bonus, then possibly switch away again from FD after 6 months to collect a £100 leaving bonus.

CricketLady

Thanks for this, but she's a bit light on direct debits - she does have two on her HSBC account but we were waiting to see if the Nationwide Refer a Friend offer came back.  I might suggest she chance that one for the First Direct bonus in the meantime though!  Thankyou again