[jambutty]

It may have escaped your notice entwisi and WillowTheWhisp but the humble comma has other uses than pretending to be the word OR.

It can also pretend to be the word AND as in “John and Fred and Mary and Susan all went to the fair.” That is a bit incongruous and the sentence would ordinarily be written as, “John, Fred, Mary and Susan all went to the fair.”

Thus in the sentence:
Provided you credit your Bank Account or Cheque Account with at least £1,500 each month (internal transfers from first direct accounts excluded), keep an average monthly balance in excess of £1,500 or have an additional product (see next question for details) with first direct you will not incur our banking fee.
the comma after the closing bracket could be either AND or OR. Which is the question.

Well considering that the author of the sentence wrote “…….. excess of £1,500 or have an additional ……..” and did not use the word or in “……excluded), keep an average ……” but used a comma instead, it is not unreasonable to read that comma to mean AND. I feel that if the author intended the comma to mean OR he would have written OR and not put a comma and had intended it to mean AND.

Now some professor of English language could come along and explain why that comma meant OR or AND but the FAQ’s were not written for professors of English language but for bank customers.

Thus neither you or I are right or wrong and we should agree to disagree on that point until it can be clarified by First Bank. However not having an account with First Bank it does not concern me directly but First Bank customers need to get the point clarified before 1st February 2007, otherwise they could be labouring under a mishaprehention and find themselves being charged the £10 fee.

I would just add that this sort of ambiguity is not uncommon where money matters are concerned.