First Direct Text Message Charges

EagerLearner

Hi all,

Just a warning in case some of you are not fully aware - First Direct are now charging £2.50 a month if you have more than 1 text a week sent to you re banking. :eek:

They did tell everyone about it a few months back but as I recall it was a footnote on a statement which I promptly forgot all about. Last month they charged me my first £2.50 (which I only noticed because they sent me a text statement!!! :rolleyes: ) so I immediately called & cancelled it.

Yesterday they charged me £2.50 again - I called and said it had been canceled, they were great and refunded it straight-away.

Be careful - if you haven't canceled it and haven't looked at your statements lately, you could have paid £5.00 by now without knowing.

Call 'em and cancel!

EagerLearner

oops_a_daisy

I was really cross when they started charging this too :mad: . They actually sold it to me years ago as a free service and I too did seem to remember something coming through to warn of the new charge but same as you didnt get around to cancelling it. I have now though after they got away with 2 months charges

lynzpower

Thanks for this! I'll get onto is asap , we just opened the account & thought it came as standard!"!!! ( does with lloyds tsb)

EagerLearner

Yes - it was free before for a long time, but people like me had a text monday, a text friday, one summary and the end of the month... costing them probably £1 per month and they've realised it's time to stop I guess. It does mean though that their new £2.50 charge is waaaaay is overpriced, as 9 texts a month is probably the most texts you'd have sent to you, costing FD around £1 or so.

I'll be mostly banking online from now on then - and in doing so hopefully add more to my 'Odds & Sodds' savings pot (see sig)!

EagerLearner

peter999

Just received leaflet with further info on the new 1st Account (their revamped current account).

First Direct have now scrapped the charges on Text Message Banking !!

Text Message Banking -1st Account
http://www.firstdirect.com/ourservices/mobile-text-message-banking.shtml?WT.ac=TMB0194

...no additional fees for all text messages sent using text message banking

I used the free text message service last year before they introduced the £2.50 charge, then reduced it to 1 text per week to avoid the charge.

peter999