First Direct - Opinions?

saints1fan

I have been with FD for about 10 years and always found them to be excellent for efficient everyday banking, but not great for savings or overdrafts etc. Their service is first rate and they have human beings on the end of the phone, in the UK.

I don't know if they still do this but I recommended a friend to FD some time ago and I got £25 credited to my account when he opened his. Might be worth an ask, if you know someone with them.

Extant

You really would hope their service would be excellent, considering they have no branches etc.

brookerbabyisababy

put it this way. branches or no branches. i would choose first direct or hsbc over barclays any day for any product.

ShelfStacker_3

BarclaysManager wrote: »

You really would hope their service would be excellent, considering they have no branches etc.

To be fair to them, they really are aimed at the sort of person who sees branch services as little else but an occasional annoyance. I rarely, if ever, need to use a branch except to deposit some cash, with everything else being done electronically - so FD suit me down to the ground.

At the moment however my account appears to be in a kind of limbo - I can draw on the overdraft by transferring to my HSBC account (a godsend, seeing as HSBC won't give me an O/D or anything), but I can't see the balance of the account and nor can I view statements, DD lists etc. Called up and they can't see any of that either, but apparently transfers are all OK. Can see all the account numbers on the transfers list as well, but like I say, no statements. Not complaining, least I have a few quid before payday, and they have been nice about it, as expected.

Cat695

BarclaysManager wrote: »

You really would hope their service would be excellent, considering they have no branches etc.

I'm guessing most normal people actually have very little use for a branch

pretty much everything can be done over the phone/internet/post/machines

In my life I can't actually think of any reason why I would actually have to go into a branch.....I'm not saying I will never need to but since being with FD I can't think of a single reason.

mitchec1

BarclaysManager wrote: »

You really would hope their service would be excellent, considering they have no branches etc.

When you consider they handle over 235,000 phonecalls a week and 40% of them are out of normal office hours a branch wouldn't be any good for 94,000 calls a week (will not to mention the contacts by secure messaging.)

I can't imagine many branches with 1.1 million customers and the ability to keep the majority of them happy as the forums, polls & reviews all imply

2 call centres and about 3600 people manage to do for it's customers what other banks are unwilling, unable or just don't want to do.

Extant

Evidently a touchy subject.

It's not as though I derided them, I simply acknowledged they had a different business model. Golly.

Cat695

mitchec1 wrote: »

When you consider they handle over 235,000 phonecalls a week and 40% of them are out of normal office hours a branch wouldn't be any good for 94,000 calls a week (will not to mention the contacts by secure messaging.)

I can't imagine many branches with 1.1 million customers and the ability to keep the majority of them happy as the forums, polls & reviews all imply

2 call centres and about 3600 people manage to do for it's customers what other banks are unwilling, unable or just don't want to do.

I believe FD have won awards for their call centres....best call centre award....out of all buisnesses not just Banks

mitchec1

Cat695 wrote: »

I believe FD have won awards for their call centres....best call centre award....out of all buisnesses not just Banks

The latest 2

• Institute of Customer Services (ICS) Satisfaction Award - Finance Sector award
  This award was voted for by our customers and reflects the fact that putting our customers at the heart of what we do makes first direct stand out from the competition (January 2009)
• Top 50 Call Centre awards
  We have been recognised as the Top Call Centre in the UK for Customer Service, in the UK’s biggest ever Call Centre benchmarking exercise, conducted by independent market research company GFK NOP (October 2008)

mitchec1

BarclaysManager wrote: »

Evidently a touchy subject.

It's not as though I derided them, I simply acknowledged they had a different business model. Golly.

Not a touchy subject most of us who bank with FD are frustrated at conventional banking which why we bank with them. TBH if I didn't have to physically pay money via machine or counter I wouldn't go near a branch.