www.iva.co.uk

Has anyone else had bad experiences with First Direct? We currently bank with them and have for several years. We also have a loan and credit card which up until last month had never missed a payment. We wrote to them a few weeks ago explaining that we were having difficulties maintaining our payments. They wrote back and asked us for a full income and expenditure report, which we very promptly returned to them along with an offer of a pro rata payment. So far this week we have had a default notice from them for the loan and a letter to say that they will not accept our offer as it's too low and just to kick us when we are down they informed us that they had removed our banking facilities and cancelled our overdraft. Is it just us or has anyone else been treated this way by FD?[:(!]

Hi there.
I dont know a lot about them but do know that they close accounts of those in an iva or bankrupt so this is probably why.
Get yourself anotyher account avoid hsbc as well as they are the same.

Ang

Thanks, luckily we had already took Melanie's advice and swapped our bank account to COOP and our salary should be paid into the new account this month or I'm sure First Direct would have got their hands on our wages!

They were my major creditor and they voted yes, then promptly closed all my accounts.

I did like them as a bank though.

Thanks for that, its good to hear that they voted yes to your proposal. We were getting worried that they may become awkward. Just can't believe how quickly they have closed account, you would think they would try to help you first.

What other banks do not let you have an aco**** with them while in an IVA? I am with Alliance & Leicester have no debt with them and so should be fine to stay with them shouldnt i? Will they be notified of the arrangement should it be approved? Or is this just aFirst Direct thing and HSBC?

Regards

Steve

Hmmmm i dont know why then stars have come up [?]

If you have no debts with the bank you should be fine to keep that account, so long as they don't start credit checking later to close accounts of those in IVA's I've heard HSBC do this.

Just make sure you don't have any credit facilities with them

I would be cautious as I think first direct are the same as hsbc and close accounts of those in an iva, might be worth having a back up account.

Ang

FD did the same to us and took away our overdraft. My oh had just had £2000 paid in by his employer for expenses as he was due to travel to USA for work. I rang them and made a fuss and they let me draw it out at a branch of HSBC. They told me to take my passport and rang ahead to the branch. When I got their they took my card off me! Luckily we had another bank account to put the cash straight into but it could have been another story!

At least they saw sense and let me have the cash!

Thats a relief. I dont have anything with them. Cancelled the very small overdarft last month and only have a visa debit with them which isnt a cheque guarantee card anyway.

Regards

Steve

On reading around this great forum I have only heard of the banks that people have mentioned that do a credit check periodically,

Saying that I was recently refused a basic Halifax account because of my credit rating

If you have no debts with your current bank then you should be fine but again they may start doing credit checks because of the current climate but again thats something I think we all have to live with.

They are on the ball aren't they? at least you got your cash! I think we are better off without a bank like this! have heard good things about coop so fingers crossed they won't close our new account once they know we are in IVA

Oh Yes

Just after Christmas I rang First Direct re some money going into our account due a family problem over Christmas we were overdrawn and my mother kindly gave us the money, this was first time we had had a problem and I mentioned that we were in an IVA, I had mentioned this to them when set up the bank account. But they closed out account there and then.
We then had a problem in getting a new account but HSBC were the only High Street Bank in our town to offer us a basic account.

Jan[:(!]

When we open the HSBC account I took and showed them all our IVA papers so I hid nothing from them.So I am hoping they will not close the account.

jan