Can you switch and then leave for the free money?

eskbanker

slhqoue said:

eskbanker said:

slhqoue said:

Thanks both. I quite like First Direct so would be switching back in part for their 3.5% regular saver. I've already saved 2 month's in this (£600) which I assume I'd just lose all the interest on if I switched and therefore the account closed early automatically.

In your shoes I think I'd leave the FD current account well alone and simply open a sacrificial account elsewhere to use for switching into Halifax - there is no guarantee that FD would accept an application from someone who'd very recently switched away, so why risk it if that's where you want to stay?

Thanks @eskbanker, can you explain what you mean by a sacrificial account? Don't most banks require you to pay in cash to them and set up Direct Debits? How would you go about this?

I meant an essentially disposable account, opened solely to take advantage of one or more switching offers.  You'd need to ensure that you set up direct debits to qualify for the incentive, but it's straightforward to do this, either by temporarily manually shifting a couple of 'real' ones from your FD account (for any where you have online management with the DD recipient) or by creating 'artificial' ones specifically for this purpose, e.g. charity donations, as discussed on numerous other threads on here.

slhqoue said:

Hi again @eskbanker, also would it be risky to do this by setting up a Halifax current account? I could easily do this I think as I already have a credit card, ISA and mortgage with them. Would I be able to use this as a 'sacrificial' account or would it have an impact on my other accounts with Halifax? Thanks again for your help.

A Halifax current account wouldn't suit this purpose - you'd need to set one up with a different bank if you're wanting to switch to Halifax for the switching incentive.