First Direct Internet Banking 'Available Balance'.....

anselld

You should go to Alliance & Leicester, its really good! :rolleyes:

SparciaM

FD is primarily a phone bank - started as one, hence why you speak to someone straight away. Their internet arm is secondary. They are plenty that needs changing, but you need to look at the bigger picture.

I've been with FD for a few years now and they ain't perfect at all, but they are the best out of the worst bunch IMO.

huw01

anselld wrote: »

You should go to Alliance & Leicester, its really good! :rolleyes:

A&L :rotfl:

you could move to First Direct's parent bank HSBC. Their internet banking is excellent. I suppose phone banking was new fangled 15 years or so ago. Now it's old hat and generally people have moved on to Internet Banking.
At the end of the day if you're with First Direct you have to use the HSBC Branch network to pay in funds manually (cash and cheques).

I suppose it depends how much you want an excellent internet banking service against and excellent phone banking service. I don't think any bank will offer you the two. HSBC do have a phone banking service but their call centres are in outer Mongolia somewhere.

nearlyrich

I use FD internet banking plus and I see all my accounts in one place including credit card bills investments in other institutions etc my balances are set out with available O/D shown at the side. I rarly ring them but it is nice to have a UK based call centre 24/7 if you need help and info, however if the internet banking didn't meet my needs I would find another bank.

I am not really sure what you are comparing this to but I have seen lots of internet banking sites and I think FD is OK and I wouldn't take the advice to go with A & L as they are about as bad as you can get.

Milarky

anselld wrote: »

You should go to Alliance & Leicester, its really good! :rolleyes:

I assume that was ironic :eek:

anselld

Milarky wrote: »

I assume that was ironic :eek:

indeed!

starM

Agree - there is no direct way on FD internet banking to see the available balance but if you select "Pay a Bill or Transfer" and then select your first account. It will show you current bal and the available balance.

MS

greyster

I've been with HSBC, Natwest, Barclays, Abbey and A&L. Been with First Direct for 6 months.

Yes, so far I would say cosmetically it probably looks the worst out of all the ones I've been with but I wouldn't leave because of the customer service and secure messaging. You may say other (not all) banks offer secure messaging but many including HSBC themselves, on a lot of cases, will still ask you to phone up when they reply. With first direct, they do it all over messaging.

Also, all the banks overhaul their internet banking every few years, I'm sure first direct will do theirs soon because HSBC and Barclays have just revamped theirs.

bylromarha

Fine, go to a company wth this functionality, but get a poor service in every other area.

Crazy-the priorities people put on some things.

Altarf

Probably a daft question, but what is wrong with FDs internet banking website?

As far as I can see, you can do or see the following -

A summary of account detail
Statements for the previous 6 years (much more than many banks)
Pay bills and make account transfers.
Set up new payees
View standing orders and direct debits
Set up new standing orders
Cancel standing orders and direct debits
Send (and get responses to account queries)
Download account transactions in various formats

What is missing?