Well, the same day as the switch from RBS to FD happened, I lost, probably quite understandably, all access to my old RBS account in App. I’m assuming if I were to use my online web browser login, I’d probably have access, but I can’t be bothered to find out.
So all that’s left is for FD to pay up the switch bonus. Let’s see how long that takes, though if they stick to their SOP’s, it should be around the 3rd week in March.
Well, what can I say! Switch bonus paid already!
I’m seriously impressed at the speed at which they paid the bonus, within 8 days of the actual switch. So that’s my recent filling I had little choice but to get done privately, effectively done for free as it cost exactly £150. It’s a win win as far as I’m concerned.
Try switching to Lloyds or Halifax when they next have an offer - they tend to pay you before the switch has even finished.
Lloyds currently have a switching offer on, albeit for the Platinum account.
Could always downgrade to a Club/Classic when you get the money?
I may well one day return to Lloyds but that may be 2/3 years in the future. It’ll probably be F/D that get the chop out of the four accounts I hold with 4 separate banks. F/D was only ever a switch to get the free money, nothing more. I won’t even be setting up any D/D’s or S/O’s and nor will I be using the debit card. Wages go in, and then get transferred manually by me as I see fit. I’m just really surprised that F/D haven’t put more stringent parameters in place in order to qualify for the bonus, i.e. minimum monthly pay in or 2 d/d’s.
Given how easy those things are to jimmy it’s probably not really worth it. Fewer and fewer switches seem to have these sort of arbitrary conditions attached. I think First Direct did when I took their £150 for joining (and £50 for leaving, RIP).
The offers tend to be used to head off poor switching performance (i.e. people moving away and not many new customers switching in).
For quite some time, First Direct has just been a pay-in requirement, although I don’t know if they did once have a Direct Debit condition too.
I switched to them last year and managed to get £100, which seemed good at the time given that they’d only recently reintroduced switch bonuses. At that stage, it was only a minimum pay-in needed.
At the time I joined, the £50 leaving offer was still advertised, but was dropped shortly after and so I couldn’t really be bothered phoning them up and arguing that it should apply to me as it was there when I’d joined (and I’d joined under that promise), especially given that there were no other switches available at the 6-12month anniversary of the First Direct account that I actually qualified for - so I didn’t really want to switch on anyway.
I would have been more interested in arguing the case if I thought I could get a joining incentive from another bank and a leaving bonus from First Direct! I didn’t want to end up doing a potentially completely unpaid switch as it would have seemed like a waste.
And I too would never do a CASS unless there was free money involved 
I do find it quite mind boggling that there are still so many people out there who no matter how much free money is offered by way of switching incentives, just stay with the bank they’ve been with in some cases, for decades. I’ll never show that sort of long term loyalty to any bank. Banks are not your friend, they exist to make money.
There is still a relatively persistent belief that switching would be “a hassle”, I think. Plus people really do like to stick with what they know, even if it’s terrible. Inertia is a powerful thing!
I did do quite well from First Direct in the end, since not long after I’d decided to keep the account they emailed me an offer to take out their Gold Card credit card, spend a certain amount on it, and get £30 in cashback. So I got a nice discount on my Christmas purchases!
Tesco Bank deciding to shut down current accounts also happened at a good time, as I was able to switch away my two accounts to Santander and Nationwide to get decent bonuses there too.
Much boils down to total apathy. Also, I suspect an awful lof banking customers are in serious hock with their bank in the form of overdrafts/loans etc and probably would have some difficulty switching anyway? Let’s face it, when someone looks to switch their account to another banking provider, a hard search is often carried out. Some will fall at the first hurdle.
A serious point that’s not to be underestimated, although I do think that many would be able to switch but perhaps don’t realise that they can if they are overdrawn?
Obviously that’s subject to the “new bank” offering an overdraft facility that matches or exceeds the amount you are overdrawn by, but I doubt all of the perpetually overdrawn have terrible credit scores so some would probably qualify.
Back to First Direct: if those who often “dip in” to their overdraft were able to switch to them and get an overdraft, for example, then they could pay nothing for their borrowing!
Yes, true.
But the seriousness of a hard search is quite often overstated. They do matter if you have an impending mortgage or loan application, but a typical customer isn’t going to be hugely affected by a hard search or two a year.
I’ve had several hard searches at Experian within the past year and it doesn’t seem to have upset any banks.
If you signed up while the offer was active you should be able to benefit. One of the preconditions is that you ring up and tell them beforehand why you’re leaving, I suppose to give them an opportunity to put it right. I think I said the online banking was god-awful (which wasn’t a lie).
I was told to switch away or close my account within a certain amount of time and they’d deposit £50.
FWIW despite partaking in every switch bonus going (except the Virgin Money one, I’m waiting for something better than what they’ve offered so far) I’ve never actually used the service to switch any real bill payments or basically anything that mattered.
No it isn’t. The link you’ve given explicitly says:
" This product is only available to first direct Current Account customers"
And it’s repeated further down:
“*Available to existing 1st Account holders only”.
Good spot, will correct.
I’m thinking about chancing my luck and applying for a F/D credit card just for the £30 bonus
If i got the card and they only offered me a £500 credit limit, it’d still be worth it. I reckon they might reject me though as I’ve only just taken out a M&S credit card and that of course is in the HSBC ‘club’ of cards I think.
It is that time of the year when I am not eligible for all available bank switch bonuses.
Same, I think with the exception of Nationwide (which I will be doing after I read the T&C)
I received a Nationwide CASS offer reward (£125) in Sep 2021, so sadly excluded this time round 
I’ve made the decision to switch away from Starling after 6 years! It’s the ONLY way that I’ll make any money on the back of them. It’s been a very functional and reliable account but lack of innovation, particularly around savings products, has made my mind up. Also the 0.05% interest on current accounts just annoys me. My interactions with customer services over the years haven’t been great either. Bye bye Starling!
If it’s your oldest account, you’d be best keeping it as it looks better to have quite old accounts on your record.