First Direct current account - £1500 min payment

janie63

I opened a first direct account about 6 months ago and I have no complaints at all and got my £100 no problems.

I was with Halifax and when I left Uni 5 years ago and they refused me a current acount so I've held a grudge ever since (LOL!!) so when I got a new higher paid (yeah!) job I decided that i'dmove on- no regrets at all...........

veryunsure

tinkerbell84 wrote: »

did you meet all the conditions?

They told me I had. The area of contention was that I'd been with them for just under the 6 month limit. When I called to check if it was OK to start the leave process and qualify for the £100 they said yes, it is fine and sorry to see you go.

Then when the transfer started, a hard nosed lady called and said you won't qualify ... and that's when I wrote in to complain. They agreed I'd been given incorrect information but I hadn't met the conditions.

So, a long winded reply to your question, but I thought I had done so and they agreed. Then changed their minds.

YorkshireBoy

veryunsure wrote: »

They told me I had. The area of contention was that I'd been with them for just under the 6 month limit. When I called to check if it was OK to start the leave process and qualify for the £100 they said yes, it is fine and sorry to see you go.

I can't be bothered to check my T&C's from earlier this year, but the current offer T&C's state you must have had your salary/income paid into the current account for 6 months. To my thinking this is too grey an area to gamble to an 'early' closure and ask a frontline CSA for their 'opinion'.

Do they mean 6 salary deposits (if you're monthly paid), or 26 weekly salary deposits if you're weekly paid? Or do they mean you must have held the account for 6 months after your first salary deposit?

At the end of the day, they give you 12 months to leave, so the best point to leave is month 8, 9, 10, or 11 isn't it? Personally I'm closing in month 9 and don't expect any 'problems'.

Then when the transfer started, a hard nosed lady called and said you won't qualify ... and that's when I wrote in to complain. They agreed I'd been given incorrect information...

So are you letting it drop, or registering an official complaint? If the incentive is still denied are you prepared to escalate to the FOS?

veryunsure

YorkshireBoy wrote: »

I can't be bothered to check my T&C's from earlier this year, but the current offer T&C's state you must have had your salary/income paid into the current account for 6 months. To my thinking this is too grey an area to gamble to an 'early' closure and ask a frontline CSA for their 'opinion'.

Do they mean 6 salary deposits (if you're monthly paid), or 26 weekly salary deposits if you're weekly paid? Or do they mean you must have held the account for 6 months after your first salary deposit?

At the end of the day, they give you 12 months to leave, so the best point to leave is month 8, 9, 10, or 11 isn't it? Personally I'm closing in month 9 and don't expect any 'problems'.So are you letting it drop, or registering an official complaint. If the incentive is still denied are you prepared to escalate to the FOS?

I should have left it for longer as you suggest but wanted to get back to my previous online bank. So it is my fault. However, they shouldn't have told me it was ok to leave, whatever level of advisor replied.

I can't decide whether to take it further; I am off work ill and don't have the energy for £100. Yes it is a lot of money but I did get the first £100. I have learned my lesson that HSBC is a wolf and FD is the sheep's clothing! Of course they are in this for financial gain even if the telephone people are nice. Where a friend of mine works they have this concept that in each customer interaction you are deliberately and intentionally nice ... I suspect FD play in a similar way ... and this helps with customer retention and surveys.

tinkerbell84

YorkshireBoy wrote: »

At the end of the day, they give you 12 months to leave, so the best point to leave is month 8, 9, 10, or 11 isn't it? Personally I'm closing in month 9 and don't expect any 'problems'.

Why are you closing, YB?

YorkshireBoy

tinkerbell84 wrote: »

Why are you closing, YB?

1. I don't require the level of telephone-based customer service that others seem to love. My banking needs can be adequately undertaken online.

2. The interest rates are dire...on all products.

3. With my recent Co-op application (opened for yet another £100 incentive), I now have 8 current accounts...and that's just plain greedy!

4. I'd like another £100 (already had £175, made up of £100 joining/switching and 3 referrals...which I shared with my referees).

tinkerbell84

I'll let you off then YB.

I'm not bothered about the interest rates at all - I'm in it for the offsetting. It's gonna save me a fortune :j

username

Well, it seems that FD have accepted me for their current account. :j

I have received all the bumph in the post, and I rang them today asking when I was going to get my card. I was told that it was going to be delivered by a courier called SMS and were vague about it, giving the standard "5-7 working days". I stated that I couldn't wait in all day for the next few days. They made enquiries and it turns out that it maybe delivered on Monday, and said the best thing to ring FD in the morning.

Looking at reviews of SMS on the internet, it's safe to say I am prepared to nor receive it for some time.
One thing I do not get in all this; why can't FD just send it via special delivery? Is this using of SMS to deliver cards a standard practice or is it done because you might (in their eyes) live in a dodgy postcode area?

tinkerbell84

my card, cheque book and PIN all came in the normal post about a week after i opened my account on the phone.

SparciaM

SMS are terrible. It took them and FD 1 month to get my card to me. It was a nightmare. They are the only bank that send things to me via SMS and everyone else does via Royal Mail.

I had to do their job for them, by calling them every day - even giving them the postcode of a HSBC branch as they couldn't find it on their system!! For the lady to send it to a different branch that was closed and then send it to a London depot.

Finally after getting to the bottom of that, they say it'll be with me on the Monday and still nothing, so I call ask what's going on, say I'll get a call back with all details and here nothing. A week passes and still no call back, ring them back up and no call back was logged on system, but person who said they would call back put notes to say 'tried to call, customer not in'.

So I just lost it big time. Asked under data protection for a list of all my notes so I could write an official complaint, highlighting where people had lied. The lady kept me on the phone for 25 mins to persuade me to just raise a telephone complaint, which I did and then they responded 10 days later (after card had FINALLY arrived at my work address - even though they said they couldn't send there), not replying to any of the concerns in my complaint over the phone - BUT - did credit my account with £50. So not bad.

FD are good if you want to speak with someone 24/7, but bar that they are the same as all other banks. My experience has been 6 complaints in 8 months, due to them not doing what was asked.

I send secure messages and they reply back with a copy and paste that has nothing to do with what I asked. I use the account purely to pay bills and that's it, savings are with Tesco as they have Faster Payments and I've got a CC with FD as they offered the best deal. But their ISAs and Savings rates are terrible, 2-3% less than everyone else. I guess you get some staff who know nothing, you get some who can't do the job and some good ones (who managed to get the card to me after a month). End of day, I try not to contact them as I never seem to get the response I need or want - I tend to google all my questions now lol

I love the way they say that the 1st account is what customers wanted 0% interest, yet most people transfer all funds to a savings account - so it shows that customers do want a good % on their money, as if you had 8% like A&L you'd keep your money in there and not transfer around