How to get free cash

by Donna Werbner on 16 June 2009  |  5 comments
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For my fourth money adventure, I thought I'd take a look at an easy way you can get your hands on some free cash this week.

For my fourth money adventure, I thought I'd take a look at an easy way you can get your hands on some free cash this week.

Open a new current account

First Direct is currently offering £100 to anyone who opens a 1st Account with them. That's right. One hundred pounds - absolutely free.

What's the catch?

If the phrase 'absolutely free' is ringing alarm bells in your head, you're right to be suspicious. There isn't just one catch. There's two:

• 1) You need to pay in at least £1,500 every month. That means an income of at least £25,000 if you make student loan repayments or £23,500 if you don't.
• 2) You also need to transfer all your direct debits from your old current account to your new account. But there's a 'Easyswitch' service you can use, which (the name suggests) makes it easy to switch.

Why you should

First Direct has been repeatedly praised by lovemoney.com experts and readers for its excellent customer service.

Plus, the 1st Account has an interest-free overdraft facility which allows you to go £250 overdrawn without paying any interest. Cross that £250 line, however, and you'll be hit with an interest rate of 15.9%. As my colleague Cliff D'Arcy would say: Ouch!

Why you shouldn't

Personally, I've found that switching accounts can involve an inordinate amount of hassle, especially if you have a joint account with a partner. My other half and I switched from Alliance & Leicester to Barclays about a year ago, and even though we'd used the bank's switching service, they failed to move over our direct debits correctly, resulting in fines for late payment of bills and a lot of stress.

Then again, after reading all the reports of their excellent service, I doubt we'd have the same trouble with First Direct we had with Barclays.

And that £100 of free cash is very tempting.... very tempting indeed...

What do you think? Should I switch? Have you switched? Let me know your thoughts/experiences/opinions using the comment boxes below!

Compare current accounts at lovemoney.com