First Direct - 20 minute phone quiz now needed to open savings account
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Doc_N
Posts: 8,278 Forumite
Here's a new one - unbelievable. Aunt banking with First Direct for at least 20 years. In that time, has had numerous products, including Regular Saver accounts every year for some years.
This time, though, instead of just opening the Regular Saver account for another year, as requested, a 20 minute fact find session was required. No options - the only alternative offered was not to open the account.
It took the anticipated 20 minutes to go through all the questions and answers (income and expenditure details also required) and to read out all the T&C.
Apparently it can be avoided at the moment if you bank online (she doesn't) but that's only because the website hasn't yet been updated. Once it's 'updated' there will be a similar requirement for accounts opened online - including the Regular Saver account.
The staff are apologetic - they know it's really annoying longstanding customers to have to waste time like this, and it's also wasting hundreds of hours of bank staff time. They're powerless to do anything about it, though.
I've had my main account with First Direct for more than 25 years myself, and I learned today that for any new account opened when the website has been 'updated' there will have first to be a 20 minute telephone factfind.
I've always praised First Direct, over 25 years, for being a responsive, efficient bank. Not any more. They seem to have completely lost sight of reality.
This time, though, instead of just opening the Regular Saver account for another year, as requested, a 20 minute fact find session was required. No options - the only alternative offered was not to open the account.
It took the anticipated 20 minutes to go through all the questions and answers (income and expenditure details also required) and to read out all the T&C.
Apparently it can be avoided at the moment if you bank online (she doesn't) but that's only because the website hasn't yet been updated. Once it's 'updated' there will be a similar requirement for accounts opened online - including the Regular Saver account.
The staff are apologetic - they know it's really annoying longstanding customers to have to waste time like this, and it's also wasting hundreds of hours of bank staff time. They're powerless to do anything about it, though.
I've had my main account with First Direct for more than 25 years myself, and I learned today that for any new account opened when the website has been 'updated' there will have first to be a 20 minute telephone factfind.
I've always praised First Direct, over 25 years, for being a responsive, efficient bank. Not any more. They seem to have completely lost sight of reality.
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Comments
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Times change, regulations and procedures change. You either accept them or open accounts elsewhere. Better a 20 minute factfind than accounts being opened fraudulently.0
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You only have to read some of the posts here to realise why banks need to protect themselves from claims that the person willingly opening an account was not pressured into doing so when they suddenly realise that the T&Cs are not to their liking and want to exit the contract penalty free.
Sorry for the long sentence
Remember the saying: if it looks too good to be true it almost certainly is.0 -
Times change, regulations and procedures change. You either accept them or open accounts elsewhere. Better a 20 minute factfind than accounts being opened fraudulently.
C'mon. Someone opening their umpteenst FD Regular Saver surely does not have to endure a 20 minute recital of T&Cs they have been familiar with for several years? Surely we can open the account online as before?0 -
Agree with JimJames, when I worked in a bank (not FD) a few years ago you'd be in trouble for not "fact finding" properly. Partly in case of missed sales opportunities but also if anyone (an auditor) checked the documentation it had to clearly show the product was right for them. It avoids people six months down the line wanting to get their money and being unhappy with a withdrawal penalty. Plus it keeps all the money laundering and fraud checks up to date. It's presumably similar online - "know your customer" must be up to date.
(I just opened my first FD regular saver and it was done online in five minutes online, but as I've just switched my current account last month I suppose they already know all the need to),0 -
You only have to read some of the posts here to realise why banks need to protect themselves from claims that the person willingly opening an account was not pressured into doing so when they suddenly realise that the T&Cs are not to their liking and want to exit the contract penalty free.
Sorry for the long sentence
Agree, literally all of the excessive need to listen to T&Cs is a direct consequence of millions of people saying they were never told about the T&Cs.
It can't be cost-effective for banks to use precious human resource to read the same old words onto the same old recording, for thousands of different customers. Why don't they just direct people to their website.
And why don't people not apply via the website to start with. It's 2015, after all.0 -
I'm pretty sure the banks that I bank with don't "know the customer" as I never get asked anything by them and always avoid their "annual financial reviews" like the plague. Luckily, I have that choice though.0
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Times change, regulations and procedures change. You either accept them or open accounts elsewhere. Better a 20 minute factfind than accounts being opened fraudulently.
When, as in this case, the customer has already banked with First Direct for 20+ years and has had her identity re-verified within the last year?0 -
Do you really mean that it will be impossible to open a new account online at FD without doing the fact find by telephone? or will there be an online version of the fact find?I've had my main account with First Direct for more than 25 years myself, and I learned today that for any new account opened when the website has been 'updated' there will have first to be a 20 minute telephone factfind.0 -
What they said was that it's possible to open another account (as a known First Direct customer) via the website at the moment without a fact find.Do you really mean that it will be impossible to open a new account online at FD without doing the fact find by telephone? or will there be an online version of the fact find?
But the sting in the tail is that that's only because the website hasn't yet been updated. Once it has, there will have to be a 30 minute (yes - that was 30!) fact find over the phone before the account can be opened. Even when the customer banks online. And even just for a bog-standard Regular Saver account, which regular customers will know involves opening a new account every year.0 -
Oh dear, and I suppose they wouldn't allow me to invoice them £25 for my time. One has to wonder on what grounds they would turn an existing current account customer away. It's not as though the money is locked away with no access and even if you close the account early, you get more interest than you would if the money was left in the current account from which the RS is funded.But the sting in the tail is that that's only because the website hasn't yet been updated. Once it has, there will have to be a 30 minute (yes - that was 30!) fact find over the phone before the account can be opened. Even when the customer banks online. And even just for a bog-standard Regular Saver account, which regular customers will know involves opening a new account every year.
My regular saver matures in a couple of months, so if their website has been downgraded by then I guess I'll be taking a 1% hit on interest rate and going with the TSB RS next year. On the plus side, I'll have a donor account with which to pick up an incentive somewhere else.0
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