Should I switch to First Direct

crispy_chris

I recently switched to First Direct from HSBC. For a main current account from what I have seen so far they are simply in a league of their own. Any time I have rung them up (all for fairly mundane reasons) the person on the other end of the phone is extremely helpful and the fact you get straight through to a person and not an automated service is seriously refreshing!

Their savings products are a bit lackluster though I will admit, so I keep a Halifax Reward Account open for the free £5 and the extra 0.2% on their savings products.

All in all though, an extremely happy FD customer!

Suzanne_Louise

I think their savings are quite good. I do a 1 year fixed bond (this is my 3rd year) and it pays about 5%, so not bad!

apt

FD's savings products are mixed. A lot of very low rates, but the 5% one year regular saver and 3% one year bond are near the top of the market. You can also offset your savings if you have a FD mortgage.

Fiddlestick

vaporate wrote: »

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

I don't *want* to have to queue in a branch that is only open during the hours that I'm in my office working.

If you can't afford the £1500 then there are other ways around the fee.

Having a real person answer the phone and not needing to deal with an IVR is simply priceless to me.

jamesd

And I rather like being able to phone them after work, at 4AM, and have a sensible discussion with a human instead of a recording saying that they are only available when I'm normally asleep.

knightfox

jamesd wrote: »

And I rather like being able to phone them after work, at 4AM, and have a sensible discussion with a human instead of a recording saying that they are only available when I'm normally asleep.

Yes I like that fact I can do all my banking overnigt. Especially helpfull when I am not at home and need to arrange bills to be paid.