Firstsave Bank

Vectra

Hi does anyone know or had any experience with firstsave recommended on this site currently offering 6.26% Aer

Paul_Herring

My experience with them was so dire, I ended up closing the account within 2 months of opening it.

I was unable to use my email address (alleged 'illegal characters,') and I was unable to link the account I wanted to with them.

If you don't have these problems then I can wholeheartedly reccommend them.

Vectra

I have found out since this is a bank of Nigeria

errr

Paul_Herring

So? It's a member of the FSA.

It's no worse than, say, IceSave. (Especially if you ignore all the scaremongering stories promoted by the Daily Mail and their website about 'foreign banks')

Aegis

Paul_Herring wrote: »

So? It's a member of the FSA.

It's no worse than, say, IceSave. (Especially if you ignore all the scaremongering stories promoted by the Daily Mail and their website about 'foreign banks')

You can certainly object to using their banks on reasons other than financial safety. I'm sure I saw a few people say they'd never use this bank when they found out it was Nigerian in protest to some specific actions/lack of actions by the Nigerian government.

Paul_Herring

Aegis wrote: »

You can certainly object to using their banks on reasons other than financial safety.

Indeed. I didn't mean to imply otherwise.

I just get the feeling that the gut reaction of 'ugh - Nigerian' is more to do with 419 scams and the bank's possible connection with them more than anything else.

Jonbvn

Sorry to see how parochial some people are. You can go back to reading your Daily Express/Mail now......

Meltdown_2

I think it could have something to do with stories of bribery & corruption - with Nigeria in general (rather than with any of their banks, particularly).
(I don't think 419 scams are generally linked with banks.)

Vectra

Jonbvn wrote: »

Sorry to see how parochial some people are. You can go back to reading your Daily Express/Mail now......

Dead right m8 parochial indeed ,especially as its my
"hard earned" I like to be parochial with

akhaitan

I am using firstsave since last six months. although, at the time of opening up the account, i didn't know that its a nigerian bank. after i came to know that it was nigerian bank (after 3-4 days of opening up bank ac), i became scared that i had put in all my money into nigerian bank. then, i tried to transfer 100 GBP bank into my current account from first save, which failed - scaring me even further. then, i received a letter from them which was not franked and i had to pay to royal mail for the postage (1.24 i think). then, i decided to close the account. but before that, i thought of asking you about this unfranked post. immediately, i received reply from them and they asked me to return the scanned copy of letter which came in the unfranked envelope and the copy of envelope ( i think i also sent it back to them by post in a separate business reply envelope sent by them). within a week they refunded my 1.24 back. then i thought of giving them one more chance and trying to transfer 100 gbp again, which was successful.

after that, i have transferred money in and out of the account 3-4 times, and everytime it was successful. i don't know why first time the transfer had failed.

but now i feel comfortable banking with first bank of nigeria. also, first few thousands (i think 35,000 GBP) is protected by UK government. So, even in the worst case of failure of the bank, atleast that much money is safe.

i don't see anything wrong in keeping upto 35,000 in that bank and getting more interest and flexibility.

6.26 might look very attractive, but it might be possible that rate of interest are very high in nigeria and they are able to take money from uk and invest in nigeria at a higher rate.

like, icici which is an indian bank, which gives around 6% in uk, and gives 9-10% in india.

i would strongly recommend to keep money into First Save Bank upto the limit safeguarded by FSA.

LardyCake

I have a fixed term account with Firstsave. No problems so far, and a good rate of interest.

It is also worth pointing out that the admin & helpdesk is in the UK (I have a strong suspicion it is done on their behalf by the Newcastle BS)