Should I switch to First Direct

knightfox

vaporate wrote: »

What's the fuss about? No branches, have to put a large sum of 1500 each month...

Customer service is a matter of opinion, luck.

I'm sticking with Natwest.

You get a black debit card!!

Some people dont need branchs and anyway HSBC can handle any cheques easily.

As with any large bank sometimes the banks do have bad days.

You werent been offered to change as you are with Natwest. So there isnt a problem. Some people are with RBS, they have to change.

knightfox

stephane wrote: »

The fact that you did not receive a straight decline this time is a start, that means that you comply with their minimum criteria...hope it all goes well for you

Last month a friend of mine tried to join. he was busy doing the online application. He made a mistake on his employer and salary. The letter declined him, on which stated that there was nothing wrong on his credit file.

He then reapplied and is now banking with them.

So there is some form of search otherwise they dont send out the forms.

I have heard that some people on here have recieved phone calls from the bank when opening the account. I dont know if it will happen this time. I suppose it depends on the company that you work for.

knightfox

stephane wrote: »

I was with Natwest for 7 years....what a bunch of losers...

Quite literally... they lost you!

Locana

Mmmmmm, black debit card...... ;-)

jamesd

young_money_saver wrote: »

i've not and no one I know is with first direct but if somebody asked id recommend them as i've never heard one bad thing about them and they have won numerous awards.

If you'd like to hear some bad things, it took them four tries to get me an accurate mortgage offer letter, another couple to do the same for my solicitor and they linked my accounts with my mortgage a day after advancing the mortgage funds, so I paid mortgage interest unnecessarily on 10% of the mortgage value for a day. Wrong answers from someone (the same person) in the mortgage processing team didn't help either. So far online banking seems to be unavailable far too often to be acceptable, but maybe that will stop being so common now the mortgage work is complete.

I find their online banking less friendly than the NatWest version.

But their people are friendly and helpful and that's my general experience so far. Too soon to say whether I'll actually completely switch my banking to them or only do it partially. But A&L is definitely going - it's not better than FD and not worth keeping around.

stephane_2

A&L not better than FD....you're having a laugh...never had any issues with their online banking....no one is saying that they are 100% no organisation is...but the facts speak for themselves when they continuously top the charts on customer survey...can A&L beat that, I doubt

jamesd

I'll be happy not to have an A&L account, FD is a positive pleasure to work with by comparison (though A&L online access has been more reliable than my FD experience so far). At least until I take some introductory offer money off them again. But I still prefer the NatWest online banking to FD even if I'd had no issues with FD service availability.

JournalGirl

vaporate wrote: »

What's the fuss about? No branches, have to put a large sum of 1500 each month...

Customer service is a matter of opinion, luck.

I'm sticking with Natwest.

In hindsight I would have paid £100 to First Direct for them to rescue me from Natworst. Natworst were the most incompetent bank I have ever had the misfortune to deal with (and unethical barstewards when a friend of mine had financial problems and was trying to set up a hardship agreement)

I have been with FD now for 10 years and I LOVE them. They are helpful and polite. When I had a problem with a large purchase (A gas fire & fireplace which corgi said was unsafe) after 18 months of fighting with the retailer, FD had it sorted within 2 weeks of contacting them (unlike my M&S Credit card who let me down twice when I had problems with purchases)

They are there whenever I need them. When I realised I had messed up some transfers between my accounts at 6am on Christmas morning I was able to ring them, they sorted it out, and they waived the charge that should have been applied.

I now have a mortgage with them as well (No fees, legal costs paid, and interest rate of 0.39 + BOE base rate).

You say Customer service is luck, but 10 years is a good run of luck! I prefer to think it's good staff and good management. :T

tgon

jamesd wrote: »

I find their online banking less friendly than the NatWest version.

As a new FD customer, I must admit the page layout is somewhat simple and a little unfriendly, IMHO.

jamesd

JournalGirl, it's definitely not luck. It takes good hiring of people with the right attitude and lots of ongoing work to deliver it.