First Direct Qualifying add-ons

laroc
laroc Posts: 79 Forumite
First Anniversary Combo Breaker
in Budgeting & bank accounts
My wife has only just over £500 per month income, which is below the £1k First Direct require
However if you take out one of their qualifying add-ons such as a Mortgage, Savings Account or Credit Card the £1k is no longer applicable.
We dont need a Mortgage
We dont need their Savings Account paying a miserable 0.1%
So we can opt for the credit card
After 2 calls to First Direct they don`t seem to know if you have to actually use the card or not ?
As we already have Debit Cards, we dont really want to start using a credit card ?
Has anyone been down this road, taking out an FD qualifying CC and not using it ?
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Comments

  • binaryuniverse
    binaryuniverse Posts: 906 Forumite
    First Anniversary First Post
    The T&Cs state that:
    Our account costs £10 per month unless:
    • Your account has been open less than 6 months.
    • At least £1000 is paid in each month (not including transfers from other First Direct accounts).
    • Your average account balance is more than £1000 in any calendar month
    • You have a mortgage, credit card, personal loan, savings (except Regular Saver), First Directory or Home Insurance with us.
    • There are no transactions on your 1st account for more than 90 days and the balance is less than £10

    So yes. You can take out a credit card and not use it. But then you risk it becoming dormant and you're back to your initial problem.

    Why not open a normal savings account, put £1 in, and no more? That'd satisfy the requirement.
  • eskbanker
    eskbanker Posts: 30,846 Forumite
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    As far as the £1,000 monthly pay-in is concerned, it doesn't state that that has to be earned income, so there's nothing to stop someone from paying in £500, taking it out and then paying it back in again to achieve the minimum monthly funding requirement for waiving the fee. However, a low income may prejudice being able to open the account in the first place, when it comes to their credit scoring and other risk algorithms.

    Re "As we already have Debit Cards, we dont really want to start using a credit card", using a credit card and paying it off in full every month does have some advantages over using a debit card, with Section 75 protection of qualifying purchases a valuable benefit in its own right - just ask Monarch Airlines customers....
  • laroc
    laroc Posts: 79 Forumite
    First Anniversary Combo Breaker
    Why not open a normal savings account, put £1 in, and no more? That'd satisfy the requirement.


    Clever, never thought of that
    Thanks very much
  • laroc
    laroc Posts: 79 Forumite
    First Anniversary Combo Breaker
    eskbanker wrote: »
    As far as the £1,000 monthly pay-in is concerned, it doesn't state that that has to be earned income, so there's nothing to stop someone from paying in £500, taking it out and then paying it back in again to achieve the minimum monthly funding requirement for waiving the fee. However, a low income may prejudice being able to open the account in the first place, when it comes to their credit scoring and other risk algorithms.

    We also have a joint FD current account so we are OK on the Credit Scoring. Just that my wife wants to keep her pension income separate (from me) She can then spend as she wishes without me having a coronary !

    Ok about you idea of paying money in and then taking it out again
    However, this morning I read HSBC are getting wise to that ploy and have either banned it or in the process of doing so !
    Easy to detect I suppose with identical transactions each month especially if the originate from the same external account
    Certainly worth a try until they say No

    The previous reply of opening a Saver Account by just putting £1 in, is another good option
    Cant recall the Savings Interest rate but something like a paltry 0.1%
    Thanks for you time, much appreciated
  • bigadaj
    bigadaj Posts: 11,531 Forumite
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    laroc wrote: »
    We also have a joint FD current account so we are OK on the Credit Scoring. Just that my wife wants to keep her pension income separate (from me) She can then spend as she wishes without me having a coronary !

    Ok about you idea of paying money in and then taking it out again
    However, this morning I read HSBC are getting wise to that ploy and have either banned it or in the process of doing so !
    Easy to detect I suppose with identical transactions each month especially if the originate from the same external account
    Certainly worth a try until they say No

    The previous reply of opening a Saver Account by just putting £1 in, is another good option
    Cant recall the Savings Interest rate but something like a paltry 0.1%
    Thanks for you time, much appreciated

    I just bounce money in and out of my HSBC account without problems. I have though complicated matters by taking advantage of their 2% debit card cashback for the last few months so it probably looks more like a real account than it did a few months ago.

    In terms of identical transactions each month originating from the same bank account this is hardly unusual, that's how the majority of the population get their salary, benefits, pension, and many other forms of income.
  • RG2015
    RG2015 Posts: 5,897 Forumite
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    binaryuniverse wrote: »
    The T&Cs state that:
    Why not open a normal savings account, put £1 in, and no more? That'd satisfy the requirement.
    Is there a catch to this method to avoid the £10 monthly charge?

    Why would anyone choose the £1000 pay followed by moving some of it out every month rather than simply holding £1 in a savings account?
  • badger09
    badger09 Posts: 11,194 Forumite
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    RG2015 wrote: »
    Is there a catch to this method to avoid the £10 monthly charge?

    No. Though I've left around £5 in mine.
    RG2015 wrote: »

    Why would anyone choose the £1000 pay followed by moving some of it out every month rather than simply holding £1 in a savings account?

    Because they don't read all the T&Cs with sufficient care;)
  • wiseonesomeofthetime
    wiseonesomeofthetime Posts: 2,073 Forumite
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    I pay £1 a month in to the pittance Savings Account.

    CS confirmed that action was acceptable to avoid the £10 per month charge.

    Aside of that I use the FD 1st account mainly for access to the 5% regular saver, bar the odd Visa Offer
  • anselld
    anselld Posts: 8,275 Forumite
    Name Dropper First Post First Anniversary
    wiseonesomeofthetime wrote: »
    I pay £1 a month in to the pittance Savings Account.

    CS confirmed that action was acceptable to avoid the £10 per month charge.

    Aside of that I use the FD 1st account mainly for access to the 5% regular saver, bar the odd Visa Offer

    There is no need to do every month. Just leave the account open with £1 in it is sufficient.
  • EarthBoy
    EarthBoy Posts: 3,037 Forumite
    Name Dropper First Post First Anniversary
    anselld wrote: »
    There is no need to do every month. Just leave the account open with £1 in it is sufficient.

    That's correct, that's what I do and I've never paid a fee on the current account.
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