Absolutely - you’re sending shudders through me all over again 
It does feel like you should expect a pair of branded complimentary slippers and a pipe upon completion 
. Hmmm - wouldn’t mind that, actually - pipe in the drawer and a spare pair to brag about 
I bet they look nice too. Nice understated colouring…… ) am I getting carried away? 
).
They did used to offer a leather chequebook holder, if I remember correctly!
It would be nice if they still did.
So, I’ve opened a First Direct account, successfully it seems because my account application has gone through and been approved. I’ve also initiated a CASS at the same time for my RBS account. Well, we’ll see if the switch bonus is forthcoming because no mention of it has cropped up during the application.
Clearly one cannot use the account straight away because FD don’t it seems let you know via email your account number or sort code and without a user name, I can’t register for online banking.
I just have to wait for my welcome pack and debit card in the post.
Await a continuous mountain of paper through the post now 
Well to be honest, as the application has been approved and they have told me I have an account, they can send whatever paperwork they like. I mean, just what paperwork are they going to send? Unless of course they actually just make up loads of totally unnecessary crap 
When I opened up my Starling and RBS accounts via app, I’ve had literally bogger all paperwork, so it will be interesting to see what they send.
Watch out for booklets such as the entire terms and conditions of using your debit card!
That’s what my recycling bin is designed for.
By the way: this is always the case.
The amount available changes frequently, so is not mentioned during the application stage.
If it says that there is a current switching offer on the main switching page of the website at the time you apply, that is noted and you receive the incentive (and, if for some reason you don’t, you can always complain).
Unlike most other banks, First Direct also don’t produce a PDF of the switching terms that you can download for each version of the offer - they just go off their standard webpage.
They did indeed, and a leather card wallet. I still have both of mine.
It took me several minutes of deliberating during the application stage to decide whether or not to CASS out my RBS account there and then or leave it until the account was all set up and I had my card etc. Then I read the blurb and it said if you were an existing account holder and you want to CASS another account to FD, you had to phone FD. I want as little interaction as possible just as I’ve had little interaction with RBS. What I will do is make any future payments to my M&S credit card from the FD account and thus keep the credit card and FD in the HSBC family so to speak.
You do indeed, that’s why I had to do it after my application had been referred - it was the only way!
I opened my account with them last year fully online, didn’t send anything through apart from photo of ID and selfie
Be ready to receive your 1kg of paper in the post. Immediately go paperless at earliest opportunity because they will scare the hell out of you with the amount of papers they push through the post. Even the first statement comes with so many papers.
It’s utterly ludicrous that a bank would in 2022, send out enormous amounts of paperwork for a bog standard bank account. Clearly from an environmental perspective, that’s poor. I’m paperless on absolutely everything. When I moved last year, I found thousands of paper documents I’d saved over many years, mostly bank statements and the like. I bought a class 5 shredder and it took me nigh on a week to shred the lot. It’s funny though, despite being paperless with my Amex BA card, Amex still annually send out a Statement of Account which comes from their operation in the Netherlands. But to give M&S Bank credit card their due, there was very little paperwork involved and they are in effect HSBC anyway, so again why FD would choose to flood the planet with paper, is only something they can justify.
As for opening this new FD account, although they promise a 7 working day CASS, the earliest I can have the CASS completed, is Friday 25th February. I don’t envisage any issues. I should get my debit card this week and hopefully be able to log into the app. I’ll then be able to transfer the £1k FD require to qualify for the switch bonus.
As for the now expected tonne of paperwork, my recycling bin has just been emptied this morning, so there’s plenty of room 
7 days is just a promise. Few days before the initial proposed date, they will email you about the new delay claiming to have back log on their end. It happened to me and my friend last year. Hope they have changed. It actually took us 3 weeks for the switch to go through though they paid early before completion of the duration required.
Thing is, the CASS is a promised 7 working day thing to complete. If they’re not meeting their SOP’s on this, then surely that’s a breach of the CASS requirements? As far as I know, if you have picked a date, then the switch should be done by that date. Effectively in my case, it’s two weeks anyway from opening the account.
I guess it is seven working days from when you get confirmation about your switch happening. I think problems lie on when they decide to process them. To me it looked like they were manually processing things. You can’t tell me my switch was delayed because you have a lot of “back log”. An automated system wouldn’t have such.
Anyway hoping things are better now.
In truth, any thoughts I had of opening an FD account have dissipated on the basis of this thread.
I might feel differently if the CASS bonus were larger, but even at the current offering, it’s just not worth it.
Oh Graham, you are a one aren’t you!
Well I think £150 in my sky rocket for doing nothing except spend 10 minutes in app applying for an account and binning off a RBS account which 2.5 years ago earned me £130 for doing exactly the same, is worth it. I’ve just had to go private with a dentist and I had a filling last week which funnily enough, cost exactly, £150, so if I get my money back for just CASS’ing an account, it’s totally worth it. But then I’m a tight son of a beatch.
I’m doing one for £50 at the moment Also away from RBS
It does tie in with an account function rather than for the sake of it, though