First Active e-savings account

Godfather said:
The phone no. I called was 017092500+option 3+option 2.

Finally!!!
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Rang that number, they asked for my FA sort code and account number and then after a long hold put me through to someone that asked for numbers and characters from my PIN/Password. They set up the payee. There didn't seem to be any restriction on the bank sort code/account number I could specify here. I specified my UB #1 current account.

Then rang up Ulster Bank and set-up payees for my FA esavings and another old FA account that FA have attached to my on-line access. I shut this account down years ago but it looks like FA just zeroed the balance and left it in place. This was actually convenient as it eased the ID requirements of setting up the new account.

I will attempt test payments of a few euro to both FA accounts and see if one, both or none get through. If I can't lodge directly into the eSavings but can into the other account I'll try the re-routing method mentioned by Godfather above.

The on-line banking web-sites for UB and FA both seem to be down at the moment (same system under different "skins"). So I can't log in to verify any of this was set-up yet.

Interestingly the quality of service is better on the UB telephone banking than with FA:

First person I spoke to could deal with my request.
Less time on hold.
They even had a better accent & sounded more mature.

They share the same hold music though.

Update: Managed to log on and make the test payments in both directions. It will be next week before I know if they worked.
 
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Beat this if you can all you FA groupies!!!!!!!


First Active support group? I hope it supplies oodles of valium or a well recognised CBT course as I feel I need both!!!!!!

After my fifth telephone call, and numerous e-mail to the illusive customer care team it was confirmed - wait for it they've 'misplaced' my application and cheque for €15,000.......

Have given up, they've finally beaten me, I can't take anymore, the stress is unbearable, flipped my lid, aaaaaaggggghhhhhh................

Good news is though, watch this space, it seems that FA will cover the cost of cheque cancellation (whoohoo!), reimburse me the cost of the numerous phonecalls (wheehee!), and wait for it take a deep breath - are you sitting down THEY'LL LODGE FUNDS TO MY ULSTERBANK C/A TO COVER LOST INTEREST SINCE MY CHEQUE WAS POSTED TO THEM MID JULY.

I had a dream .....
 

I bow before you. You can be an honorary life member.

p.s. fair play to FA for refunding the interest/charges - If you're reading just try not to mess up giving this compensation.
 
Hate to say this but I'm a happy customer although I'm with FA solely for simple no frills investment. Opened a second esavings account in my own name online to maximise the interest rate on two accounts under €15k (1st one was in joint name with wife)-took 2/3 days for 2nd account to appear online and operational! Transfers from ECB account and between both esavings, no problem and instant. I Presume option of 3rd account for wife on her own is also an option. Happy days.
 
I'm emerging from the tunnel now, light having been sighted about a week ago. My journey on the FA slow train started on July 10th.

All the test payments have gone through faster than expected. I guess it's because they're between FA and UB.

As was speculated early on in this thread they don't appear to be strictly enforcing T&C 43.5 which says payments must come in by SO. This appears to be an unenforceable condition anyway.

Has anyone lodged to their FA eSavings from another bank that isn't part of the RBS Group? I've made a test payment from my AIB account to the eSavings account to see if it gets through.

The first interest payment has also just been made by FA.

The FA on-line banking seems to allow setting up a standing order that could be used to shift cash out each month to stop the interest payment taking the balance over €15k. T&C 43.9 forbids the use of SOs & DDs from the account. It might be easier to get away with setting up a SO as they've already set-up the payee required so all that remains to do is the scheduling of a regular payment.

Update - The test payment from my AIB cashsave account got through too. I'm declaring my FA eSavings Account ready for use. Time to move over the €€€s from Northern Rock.

Update 2 - The SO set up facility doesn't display the eSavings account in the drop down list of FA accounts held so one cannot be created on-line.
 
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jigsaw said:
has this issue been rectified does anybody know ?
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Not as of this afternoon, neither PTSB nor Halifax allow me to set this account up, Sort Code invalid is the answer.

Nice account... Can't bring money onto it.. Really nice..
 
i was steering towards a firstactive esaver account but now im not so sure. might give it a while to see if they sort out the sort code issue

does anyone know if you have to set up a stading order for this esaver account or can you just lodge money into it whenever you want

cheers
 
IrlJidel said:
Do transfers work from Nothern Rock?
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Haven't tried it because NR have a clumsy system where you can only have one nominated account for external transfers at a time.
I moved it NR-->UB-->FA.

I've made a test payment from RaboDirect to see if it gets through.
 
NR external transfers originate from AIB. So if AIB transfers work, NR probably do too.
 
Finally back from holidays!

Because I had another account with FA I can now transfer amounts to the new eSavings (I just did this with no problem) but the fact that the sort-code+account no. of the eSavings doesn't seem to be recognized by electronic transfers from other "external" banks (as I can see from previous posts) remains a mistery...

My suggestion is to interact with both FA and your bank to understand what needs to be done in order to make the esavings account more "visible" to the circuit... Hopefully it won't end in "being passed" through different phone numbers with no answer...
 
First Active e-savings account - not..............

After posting 15,000 + docs to FA on 18th July which they promptly 'misplaced' and admitted to some six weeks later. They've cancelled the cheque absorbing cancellation charges and credited €59 to my current account. Think it should have been more but fed up with the whole carry on.


Have since opened, sucessfully and with no hassle at all, a deposit account for €10,000 with RaboDirect and added €5,000 to another deposit account. Rates aren't as good as with FA but the extra .22% just wasnt' worth the hassle.


In time I might get the energy to put pen to paper and complain about their administration.

Informative thread, tks to all, kept me sane to know others were also having difficulties.

L
 
Lorraine

If you had lodged the max. €15k to your FA esavings account, as soon as the first interest payment is made, does the rate not drop to the 4.05%?

Slim
 
Slim said:
If you had lodged the max. €15k to your FA esavings account, as soon as the first interest payment is made, does the rate not drop to the 4.05%?
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Yes - so you should lodge less or withdraw the interest ASAP as mentioned previously several times in this thread.
 
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