First Direct current account - £1500 min payment

mrmajika

Turtle wrote: »

I agree with Tinkerbell. I think you'll find the service is so good you will find the potential stress from other incompetent institutions is not worth trading in the other £100 to close.

Agreed.:T

As a soon to be ex-LTSB employee, I have just moved my banking from LTSB to First Direct in anticipation of starting my new job in 6 weeks or so.

The process was painless and the service that FD give is second to none - so far so good !!

tara747

Holy moly, I've never heard such praise for a bank!!! Are they that good? What do they do?

TBH, the fact that they don't pay credit interest is a killer. Can I pay DDs etc from a savings a/c and just sweep my salary into that each month?

tinkerbell84

it's easily overcome. open one of their savings accounts and then move the money back into your 1st account to cover your DDs.

you can move money online instantly. you can't pay DDs from a savings account, but it's not really any hassle to do it this way!

i just love that i can ring them at any time and talk directly to someone that knows what they're talking about. there's no 'press 1 for this, or 2 for that' - they answer the phone!

geri1965_2

You sometimes have to hold, but it's not usually that long and then a real person answers you! And they are friendly as well.

veryunsure

I have not found them to be a nice bank. They told me I could move away and get the incentive. Then they called me to ask why I was leaving (no interest on the current account).

Now they have said I don't meet their t&c for the £100. despite saying in an email they would and asking for the bank details of where to send it!

There is nothing wrong with their service, I use them online and find other banks online systems suit me better.

Cloudane

^ LOL sounds like they saw right through you there. I don't really agree with just opening and closing something for the incentives myself, reduces the value for those who are genuinely interested in the account.

I went for A&L instead because of the massive difference in interest rate (zero to 8.5%). Got a feeling you get what you pay for, though - their reputation isn't helping me to maintain a positive attitude towards them.

Very nearly switched to FD as well, but my 'money saver' instincts said better interest rate, free use of their chargeable cash machines etc. After the year's up and the interest drops I may well go for FD next time, they have an awesome reputation (very rare for any bank).

I believe you can get around the £1500 minimum by opening a savings account and putting £1 in it, that way they won't charge £10/month. But whilst it works for the charge, the impression I get is that it doesn't work for the £100 incentive.

YorkshireBoy

veryunsure wrote: »

They told me I could move away and get the incentive. Then they called me to ask why I was leaving (no interest on the current account).

Now they have said I don't meet their t&c for the £100. despite saying in an email they would and asking for the bank details of where to send it!

"No interest" is not really a valid reason (I wouldn't have thought?), because you knew what the rate was when you signed up.

However, paying your salary in for 6 months is a key condition for the leaving incentive. Have you done that?

veryunsure

I've paid in much more than that but not yet six months.

I did ask if I'd met the criteria for leaving and the reply was that I had. So I started to leave them

As for knowing about the interest, well maybe it is a fair point. However they did say I could 'sweep' money into an interest bearing account. This isn't a daily event with FD though as it is with other banks. So it is hard for me to use as my circumstances dictate that there is no one point of each month to do this. Obviously I'm not going into detail here but just take my word that thier sweeping facility isn't what they had promised as a way of making up for not getting interest on my current account.

They phoned me today and I'm going to keep the account open for 3 months just to get my £100! It has become a [sad] point of principle for me now! I dislike organisations that mislead.

SuiDreams

veryunsure wrote: »

As for knowing about the interest, well maybe it is a fair point. However they did say I could 'sweep' money into an interest bearing account. This isn't a daily event with FD though as it is with other banks. So it is hard for me to use as my circumstances dictate that there is no one point of each month to do this. Obviously I'm not going into detail here but just take my word that thier sweeping facility isn't what they had promised as a way of making up for not getting interest on my current account.

As soon as I get paid a transfer it to my savings account on line and set up a payment back for when DD's go out. DD's generally got out at the same date every month and always know in advance how much each one will be, so I find this very easy. I do teh same thing for evry cash withdrawl as well. Doing this I keep my 1st account balance at £0, so don't feel that I am losing on the interest front.

I also have set up the text message banking to alert me if my balance goes below £0, so that I can transfer money accross immediately. Saves any oversites.

tara747

Cloudane wrote: »

^ LOL sounds like they saw right through you there. I don't really agree with just opening and closing something for the incentives myself, reduces the value for those who are genuinely interested in the account.

I went for A&L instead because of the massive difference in interest rate (zero to 8.5%). Got a feeling you get what you pay for, though - their reputation isn't helping me to maintain a positive attitude towards them.

Very nearly switched to FD as well, but my 'money saver' instincts said better interest rate, free use of their chargeable cash machines etc. After the year's up and the interest drops I may well go for FD next time, they have an awesome reputation (very rare for any bank).

I believe you can get around the £1500 minimum by opening a savings account and putting £1 in it, that way they won't charge £10/month. But whilst it works for the charge, the impression I get is that it doesn't work for the £100 incentive.

Just to clarify - do you have to pay to use the FD debit card??