First Direct Current Account - Opinions (Good & Bad)

citibadger

I have just applied for a First Direct account after searching for a replacement for the awful Citibank. The call centre I spoke to were very helpful and were able to answer my queries without the need to transfer you. I am very fussy, but have found First Direct the best among them all. I do my banking online, and have found it serves my needs, any problems just call and speak to a human.

perplexed.com

Been with them 8 years now. Never any problems in all that time. Highly recommend.

Organic12

I've been with FD for about 3 years now and cannot fault them. The staff are always friendly, able to help and if you ring at a busy time you know you won't be left in the queue for silly amounts of time (nearer 5mins not 20mins+ that I had with my old bank).

FD messed up my mortgage initially but after I spoke to a member of staff he went out of his way to fix the problem so it was if their mistake had never happened. It can't have been an easy thing to arrange. That's what I call taking care of customers.

I've seen other comments about the web application being poor but there are definitely worse ones out there.

stella2009

darren72 wrote: »

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

I have only been with them for a few months. But I can tell you in that time I am confident that they are leaps and bounds above any other bank that I have dealt with.

I wouldn't even remotely consider leaving them.

stephane_2

I have been with FD for 15 months now and customer service is far ahead of any other Banks I have been with. You're never in the queue, call center in the UK and while some people criticise the online system, I found it much better than some others. Was given a their gold credit card after 6 months and recently applied for a loan online, the money was in my account in matter of minutes. When I switched my banking to them, used their switch service & got £100 paid into account after 3 months....

absfabs

Can second what everyone else has been saying, excellent service, wouldn't change back.

telboyo

I have been with FD since about '93 and I have never had a problem with them they are absolutely brilliant, as every one says the Call Centre is faultless. I even arranged a mortgage through them, that was probably one of the easiest transactions I have ever done over the phone, 20 minutes to get a mortgage is ridiculous, better still I have fixed this mortgage for life at .49% over base. First Direct deserve all the plaudits they get.

darren72

Thank you everyone for all of your comments - they have been great.

Can anyone explain in what ways their online banking is not as good as others/basic.

Thanks!

username

Can anyone explain in what ways their online banking is not as good as others/basic.

Can't delete / amend people that you've paid electronically via wire transfer - you have wait for them to drop off your list, which if you pay people often under different references can be a bit annoying as you end up with a large list.

If you are talking on the phone to the person at FD you cannot look at the account online at the same time, as their system can't appear to handle both viewing at once.

You can only view upto 3 months' worth of credit card statements on the internet. Debit card statements go back as far as 6 years I believe, but haven't banked with them that long.

If you want to ring their normal number then it's 0113 2345678. No need to ring the 0845, and if you have inclusive minutes it could save you some dough.

You get a Visa Debit with £100 cheque guarantee.

Can't fault their service; have always had no problems with their service. Telephone service has always been helpful and friendly, and they managed to ship out a replacement credit card arriving Saturday when I asked for one late Tuesday evening. UK call centres too, so no dialling deepest Bombay. When you ask for them to ring you back, they do do it!

Also have had no problems arranging cash withdrawals at an HSBC branch at request via phone, for small and large amounts in addition to using the cheque book to take money out (HSBC customers must have their cheque-book with them). Which is handy if you ever happen to leave your wallet at home as you can ring up and arrange to have some cash withdrawn over the counter at any HSBC branch.

The only complaint I did have was over the delivery of the cards; if you live in an area which HSBC/FD deem to be a "hot postcode area", then they will NOT under any circumstances send your card out in the normal post. It will be sent via a recorded delivery service; usually SMS (Secure Mail Services - who are a total shower of sh!te), to a HSBC branch of your choice to collect or via Royal Mail Special Delivery (which is now how mine are all sent out after many issues with SMS).

Ditch_Crawler

username wrote: »

If you are talking on the phone to the person at FD you cannot look at the account online at the same time, as their system can't appear to handle both viewing at once.

I have never experienced that problem - maybe it gets complicated if either party attempts to move money whilst both ends are viewing the account.

Incidentally, my latest VISA debit card no longer carries the £100 cheque guarantee feature - I suspect that is part of the banks' campaign to abolish cheque-writing altogether.

Ditch