Switching to First Direct. Will any old current account do? 21 December 2022 at 4:00PM edited 21 December 2022 at 4:00PM in Budgeting & bank accounts 27 replies 1.4K views

pearl123

Re: Switching to First Direct. Will any old current account do? 
I have an old classic Lloyds current account with lloyds or I could use a Virgin current account. Neither have direct debits or standing orders. Does it matter that both have a £1.00 in it. 
I'm basically after the cashback and the 7% saver. 

Rob5342

Yes any account will do as long as the bank supports the current accound switching service, which most do.

Katiehound

I would be inclined to put some more money in so it looks like a 'real' bank account!

Rob5342

Katiehound said:

I would be inclined to put some more money in so it looks like a 'real' bank account!

If a transfer balance isn't stated in the switching terms then have a £0 balance won't matter.

pearl123

Thank you everyone. It looks like it's ok to me to use. 

eastcorkram

Am I right in thinking that this switch doesn't require any DDs to be active? It looks like all I'd need to do is pay in £1000 within three months. If I make sure there is £1001 in the account being moved, will that be all I have to do? 

I've only tried one switch before , from Tesco to Nationwide, and it failed. No one would say why, but because it didn't happen in the 7 day time scale, I didn't get the switching bonus.

So I could try and switch the nationwide account to first direct. Then open their RS account too.

Katiehound

I am fairly sure that £1000 being paid in is not the money from the switch- it needs to be paid as a credit . it might qualify but I would be sending money to ensure I had complied with the t&cs.

 Of course it does not need to be a lump sum either- £100 x 10 in and out again would make up the sum.

MrCreaky

I hope this isn't hijacking the thread, but I've got a question about the same switch. It says you can never have had a 1st Direct account to be able to switch. I had one that closed about 12 years ago - surely they can't keep personal information for that long? I'm not sure whether to try it or not. 

Thanks anyone for helping.

flaneurs_lobster

MrCreaky said:

I hope this isn't hijacking the thread, but I've got a question about the same switch. It says you can never have had a 1st Direct account to be able to switch. I had one that closed about 12 years ago - surely they can't keep personal information for that long? I'm not sure whether to try it or not. 

Thanks anyone for helping.

What's the worst that can happen? You end up with a first direct bank account w/ a decent regular savings account available. Keep it until another switch offer comes along. One consideration is that FD will do a hard search on your credit files, if you care about such things.

If I were switching just for the bonus I'd use a "spare" current account, especially as FD don't need DDs to be in place. OTOH, first direct seem to score well in the customer satisfaction surveys so maybe it's a keeper.

WillPS

Katiehound said:

I would be inclined to put some more money in so it looks like a 'real' bank account!

I tend to put an odd amount of pence to the old account (in addition to the amount required to satisfy the switch requirements, if any) so I can see at-a-glance that the switch has completed.

Nowt to do with looking 'real' though. Any bank account which has progressed to the final stages of a CASS switch out process is real.

eastcorkram

WillPS said:

Katiehound said:

I would be inclined to put some more money in so it looks like a 'real' bank account!

I tend to put an odd amount of pence to the old account (in addition to the amount required to satisfy the switch requirements, if any) so I can see at-a-glance that the switch has completed.

Nowt to do with looking 'real' though. Any bank account which has progressed to the final stages of a CASS switch out process is real.

Do you think if there's £1000 in the account being switched, that qualifies as having paid in £1000?

Or maybe I just just have a transfer balance of a few pounds, and then manually transfer £1000 in.