First Direct Free £100

Toiletbrush

Saw this and might go for it...

£100 if you sign up for a current account and transfer a monthly pay amount (>£1500) into it.

Anybody gone for this?

SalsaDanca

Hi,

Welcome to MSE.

It looks like you have to open the account and use it for at least six months, then transfer to another bank before the end of your first year with First Direct. They will then pay you £100 when you close the account. Is this the offer you're talking about, or is there an offer where I can get £100 when I open an account?

Remember that First Direct don't pay interest on their current account, and as you have to close all your accounts within the first year you won't have time to take advantage of the 8% regular saver.

Regards,

Rob

KiKi

Toiletbrush wrote: »

Saw this and might go for it...

£100 if you sign up for a current account and transfer a monthly pay amount (>£1500) into it.

Anybody gone for this?

Welcome to MSE.

Yeah - Rob's right. The "join for £100" offer was one they had earlier this year (I joined and took the money!).

The current offer is "if you join and don't like us, we'll help you to find another bank and pay you £100 to leave" Which is rather different...!

(The 8% account that Rob mentions is a separate savings account, FYI.)

First Direct have been a great bank for me; excellent customer service which doesn't involve pressing numbers for hours before you get to speak to a human. All the humans speak English, too, which is helpful.

KiKi

SparciaM

I switched to FD and I think I'll be claiming the £100. The customer service is good in the fact that you get through to someone straight away, apart from at 3am when my phone kept ringing for 25 minutes before someone picked up!!!

Their internet site, is the WORST I've ever used. You can't delete bill payments, you can't log on to your account when you're ringing them. You have drop down menus for everything and sub menus etc and the secure message system is so generic you have to send a message to 'everything else' as most other subjects wont relate to you.

I'm giving them the benefit of the doubt and will stay for 4 months, but if this is what FD is all about I'll be switching back to my old bank (which is still open), as FD were going to take 25 working days to transfer over my DDs and SOs!!!!!

KiKi

sofa_surfer wrote: »

erm, resounding yes :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl:

(Contact with English speaking humans has not been my experience when speaking to Barclays or Virgin - until I wanted to close my accounts, of course.)


KiKi

deano8000

SparciaM wrote: »

I switched to FD and I think I'll be claiming the £100. The customer service is good in the fact that you get through to someone straight away, apart from at 3am when my phone kept ringing for 25 minutes before someone picked up!!!

Their internet site, is the WORST I've ever used. You can't delete bill payments, you can't log on to your account when you're ringing them. You have drop down menus for everything and sub menus etc and the secure message system is so generic you have to send a message to 'everything else' as most other subjects wont relate to you.

I'm giving them the benefit of the doubt and will stay for 4 months, but if this is what FD is all about I'll be switching back to my old bank (which is still open), as FD were going to take 25 working days to transfer over my DDs and SOs!!!!!

i think the quote for so's and dd's is due to getting the info from your old bank and then ensuring the correct ones are set up as when i transferred mine they have to notify your dd companies and also the old bank sent them info of old cancelled mandates so they had to make sure the correct ones were activated.

as for the internet banking site it must be down to users preference as ive had no probs with it.

Toiletbrush

I was thinking of setting it up and then transferring my pay out of FD and into my current bank on payday.

This would avoid the hassle of transferring the direct debits from my old bank -and I think would still mean it's within the t&c's.

Once you get the £100 then just close the account! :money:

mwahahahahahaaaaaaaa

SparciaM

The problem you have with that Toiletbrush, is that you have to keep the account open for 6 months and then close. Which means you'd have an active account on your credit file, showing an OD limit of £500 and once closed this will still show on your file for 6 years and could affect you getting credit elsewhere. You need to think if £100 is worth it in the end

CopperPlate_2

deano8000 wrote: »

i think the quote for so's and dd's is due to getting the info from your old bank and then ensuring the correct ones are set up as when i transferred mine they have to notify your dd companies and also the old bank sent them info of old cancelled mandates so they had to make sure the correct ones were activated.

as for the internet banking site it must be down to users preference as ive had no probs with it.

Have to echo these sentiments. The site could do with a structural update in as much as recently they've refurbished it but not actually changed the gubbins of it, merely the shell so to speak. As for the bill payments prob, yes it is irritating - all the other banks I've used seem to be able to allow me to delete bill payments, but not fd. Their customer service is first rate. I don't have a problem not getting interest on my account, as I've an offset mortgage with them and wouldn't get interest anyway. Besides, for all the pence a month it would earn me...

I had no problems whatsoever with fd when they transferred my banking to them.

As a bank I've found them to be straightforward and any problems I might've had with 3rd parties (i.e. DD holders, etc) fd have sorted out what they could.

Having been with smile for a good few years I was disappointed by their extreme reluctance to pass on interest rate rises, keeping their rates uncompetitive compared to other providers, and a general decline in the standard of customer service (secure messages going unreplied or being replied to after a week or so). Contrast fd where I get a reply to secure message within the same day or at least a day or so afterwards.

thumshie

Just saw this
http://www.firstdirect.com/1st-account/

Looks like its now £100 when you OPEN the account and a further £100 if you then move it elsewhere..Total £200....Quite a nice offer..either way.

maninthestreet

I'm with FD, and I have no problem deleting bill payments via their internet banking website.