Avoid First Direct - They are gonna charge all customers £10!

Martinslovechild

Firstly, there are an incredible amount of lethargic people in the UK when it comes to personal finance (for example, of the many many people that i've spoken to regarding swapping gas/electric/bank account/mortgage etc, only 1 has actually followed through and done it), so I don't forsee a mass exodus.

First Direct will also put a spin on this - I don't believe that they will simply issue letters to customers announcing a blanket £10 charge. Rather, I would anticipate them packaging the account to offer things such as 'free' travel insurance, a reduced loan rate (which in turn reduces the £10 fee??) etc.

This reminds me slightly of the day I received a letter from egg, titled 'Good News from Egg', which described how a new rewards scheme was being introduced and the existing cashback scheme (i.e. the most valuable thing to me about having an Egg Card) reduced by 90%.

All I can say in summary is that FD's marketing people must have worked out their figures before going ahead and charging £10, determined the number of potential customers who will leave and the potential profit from those that remain. By retaining profitable customers who have a number of accounts with FD (and therefore won't pay the £10 but will instead pay lots of interest via their mortgage, credit card, overdraft and loan), they stand to potentially make a killing. It's a risk which could horribly backfire, but when credit card companies started charging for '0%' balance transfers, there was an initial outcry and now they're commonplace. I suspect that the other banks will be watching very closely and will follow soon afterwards if the initial signs are positive. Watch this space.

ironic

I just said I have a friend who works for them but if its all confidential like these posts have said then he wouldn't tell me. He loves working there and wouldn't put his job on the line. why?

f3lix

Martinslovechild wrote:

Firstly, there are an incredible amount of lethargic people in the UK when it comes to personal finance (for example, of the many many people that i've spoken to regarding swapping gas/electric/bank account/mortgage etc, only 1 has actually followed through and done it), so I don't forsee a mass exodus.

Thanks to this site peoples lethargy is changing, I've recentely moved from halifax to First Direct . And I wont think twice about jumping ship again....so bring on the charges....goodbye FD

ironic

I do tend to agree f3lix. I will be moving if there is nothing in it for me other than them taking my money. I'll wait and see if anything happens as they have treated me better than any other bank I've been with but it could all be pie in the sky anyway so I'll worry about it if and when it happens. I like to have all the facts first. Surely no bank can justify £10 for keeping your money for you.

ironic

M_Thomson wrote:

When you work for a financial institution, it is nearly always in a contract that you must not reveal any confidential information otherwise your employment could be terminated.

Yeh I know that, thanks for your reply anyway. I was asking why to f3lix. I work in the insurance industry so for such confidentiality reasons I have refriened from joining the forum for fear of saying something I shouldnt but seeing this thread I felt I had to comment.

ironic

No I was asking f3lix why he thought I worked for first direct?

M_Thomson

ironic wrote:

No I was asking f3lix why he thought I worked for first direct?

Sorry! Re read what you wrote! Silly me!

trplumbing

As far as I know the £10 wont come with any free life insurance etc as someone thought. One thing I remember about FD recently: they started charging £2.50 per month for event driven text messages (and fair enough in my opinion as they sent out loads of them) but stated if you had firstdirectory it remained free (ie they cross sold this), however the first directory recently went up from £9.00 to £11.45 (i think) - which is £2.45 higher. So its not really free now... (just my opinion)

Many people state how good the service is, and they are right. However I do feel that a lot of FDs reputation is from the past and they do rest on their laurels a bit. Apart from the person to person UK call centres, I cant think of any one product or service which is a market leader? I mean they are generally good, but nothing extraordinary. And besides, other banks have recognised this and many offer the same ideas as FD, in fact some better.

mrcow

equium wrote:

Why do you bank with first direct?

Simple...
- when you call, you go straight through to a REAL person EVER time.
- you speak to someone in th UK (Leeds or Hamilton)
- you have 24/7 access to your money - even Christmas Day or 00.01 on New Years Day
- simple, secure online banking
- free txt msg mini statements

I feel the list can go on and on...

The £10 a month, bank account charge will happen - but everyone has just focused on the negative side (which is easily done). The bank account will have better interest rates and lower charges - and it is also supported by a cashback incentive in relation to what products you have - a large proportion of customers will actually benefit...

Rubbish!

All the stuff you've listed is either irrelevent or you can get from any major bank (who cares where their call centres are btw?). Online banking is largely the same for any major banks.

As for the reduced charges, when a major company is charging £105 for going a couple of pound overdrawn, there's quite a lot of scope for reduction

As for customers being better off........ :rotfl: Yeah that's right, FD would do this to benefit their customers, not to line their own pockets. The other one's got bells on it btw!

pinkfluffybabe

mrcow wrote:

Rubbish!

All the stuff you've listed is either irrelevent or you can get from any major bank (who cares where their call centres are btw?).

I do. Lloyds TSB have a call centre in India who cannot carry out very many actions for you and almost always pass you back to Glasgow for things - this means you spend longer on the phone than you would have were you able to get directly through to one person who could action anything you wanted on your account. It also sometimes means explaining things to two different people. I like the fact that FD get you through to a person right away - and usually a very pleasant, helpful person at that, but I certainly don't think it is worth £10 per month.