First Direct Current Account - Opinions (Good & Bad)

darren72

I'm considering opening a First Direct current account, but was wondering what type of debit card they provide - Is it a Visa Debit card ??

Would others recommend them ?

Thanks

rb10

Yes, they provide a Visa Debit Card.

Have a search around the forums - you'll generally find that people say:

Pros
- Administration of accounts is excellent
- They are very good if you like to manage your account using telephone banking

Cons
- Internet banking is not as good as some other banks (e.g. Halifax & HSBC)
- No interest paid on current account

Overall people recommend them very highly.

nickyc_2

Yes, it's a visa debit card. I've been with them for years and have had no problem & have recommended them to friends.

darren72

I'm with Cahoot at the moment, but they have found out that some accounts have been blocked due to 'internal fraud', and mine was one of them.

It leaves me not trusting them at all (for obvious reasons).

I don't really know where to go, but First Direct seem to offer proper paper statements, and freephone access, although as you say no interest

Ditch_Crawler

The over-riding advantage of banking with 1stDirect is their call centre which is head shoulders knees and toes above any other call centre in the entire universe - it is rare to get into a queue, and even if you do, it's never longer than half a minute or so. You always get answered by a person - no recorded messages - and the person who answers will listen carefully to your question, and deal with your call until you are satisfied. You will only occasionally be transferred to another person, and if you are, the original operative will explain your question to the new department before passing you through, so you don't have to repeat yourself. If a callback is required, they will agree a time to call you back, and the callback will actually happen.

EarthBoy

darren72 wrote: »

....First Direct seem to offer proper paper statements, and freephone access, ...

They don't offer freephone access. It's an 0845 number. You can ring them on their international landline number instead, but you still have to pay for the call.

The 0800 number shown on their adverts is for opening new accounts only. If you ring it as an existing customer, for account enquiries, you will be asked, politely, to ring the 0845 number instead.

darren72

They do sound good, but it's ashame they don't pay any interest at all on the account.

Sorry, my mistake about the 0800 - As you say that is for new customers. At least they offer a standard number instead of 0845.

Does anyone have anything bad to say about them, or are they truly miles ahead of any other bank in terms of service ??

Thanks

Ditch_Crawler

darren72 wrote: »

They do sound good, but it's ashame they don't pay any interest at all on the account

You'll get a £250 interest-free overdraft instead

darren72

Thanks - I appreciate all the views and comments.

Isonstine

After recently applying for a First Direct account, I have to say the service so far has been wonderful.

I rang them after applying and was told they needed to call me back on a verified line - which they did at work and he then opened the account there and then for me.

I've now received the welcome pack and called to activate today and although there were plenty of questions they wanted me to provide answers to, it was quick and easy. Once it was opened I was eager to get online and check the internet banking - just to see my balance of 0.00! As I didn't have my secure ID and so on, I thought I would have to request these and wait 5 days before getting each one separately. But no, she asked if I received them yet and said I'll give them over the phone for you today - within 1 minute I was up and running on internet banking. How nice to be able to choose your own username too - rather than a string of numbers.

I know people say it time and time again but the call centre really does make First Direct and it has just been nice to get everything sorted easily. When I rang today, I didn't even have to explain - she said hello and said I must be calling to activate the account.

I did apply for a credit card when I opened the account, which sadly has been declined but it did say to try again in 6 months. There's probably better deals out there, but I'm not a big credit card user and I like to have my credit card with the main bank account.

Thumbs up so far and I'm sure once my debit card arrives and I've switched my salary over - it will only get better.

blueberrypie

Like the others who've replied, I've nothing negative to say about First Direct either. No interest on current accounts doesn't bother me - very few current accounts pay enough interest to make it worth bothering with, and FD's implementation of Faster Payments makes it easy to move money into and out of the account anyway, so there's no need to leave a high balance in there anyway.