First Direct

Borderlandboy

Having just switched to First Direct from Smile (both internet and phone based banks), I was disappointed to find that First Direct customers cannot withdraw cash or make deposits at post office branches. I live in a rural area and this service was important to me with no HSBC branches or cashpoints nearby. The service is available with Smile and indeed most other banks. If I had realised this short-coming in the First Direct offering I would not have switched to First Direct.

xyz123

if this was so very important then why didnt you check with the bank before switching? another lesson learnt i guess....i.e. just cos one financial instituition does something, doesnt mean every other bank also does that and check that the account meets your requirement before just signing up...

you can always switch back to your previous bank to resolve your problem.

rb10

It's no secret which accounts can and can't be used at the PO - there's a list on the Post Office website here: http://www.postoffice.co.uk/portal/po/content1?catId=19400181&mediaId=19700174

(Note that it is slightly out of date - Halifax is not listed for paying in).

DrSyn

Method A.
Open up a Co-op Bank account. This does allow you to use the Post Office for withdrawls and deposits! The you do not need the "First Direct account.

Method B
1.Open up a current account at the Co-op Bank.

2. Set up a monthly "direct debt" to transfer funds from "First Direct" to the "Co-Op Bank"for the amount you think you will need each month.

3. If you need to deposit money. Use the post office to deposit it into the Co-op Bank account. Then use the "faster payments" to transfer funds to "First Direct". Transfer takes about " hours.

You could of course telephone First Direct and ask them to tell the bosses you and others would like to have accesss the account at the Post Office. Who knowns they might then do it!

glider3560

First Direct do offer PO access in Scotland, although I'm not sure of the rationale behind this.

gt94sss2

glider3560 wrote: »

First Direct do offer PO access in Scotland, although I'm not sure of the rationale behind this.

It's because there are currently very few HSBC branches in Scotland..

Regards
Sunil

adamc260

To defend First Direct... It's hardly a short coming? Not every bank allows you to withdraw/put money in via the Post Office... thats why they have branches. You wrongly assumed that because one bank does, all banks do =/

First Direct are a good bank, they have branches for that sort of thing... Guess it pays to double check in the future

Loughton_Monkey

I virtually never close a current account. You never know when they might come in handy. In this case, with Faster Payments, you could probably have had the best of both worlds.

First Direct is such a good bank, I cannot think what bombshell it would take for me to leave them.

Borderlandboy

Thanks for all the advice. I do realise I should have checked the services offered at PO branches. I was really making the point maybe to prevent other people making the same wrong assumption I did. I do still have my Smile account and will use that in the way described. One other point, I do live in Scotland but my local PO will not accept the First Direct card.

adamc260

Loughton_Monkey wrote: »

First Direct is such a good bank, I cannot think what bombshell it would take for me to leave them.

Yup, I agree!

EarthBoy

Borderlandboy wrote: »

One other point, I do live in Scotland but my local PO will not accept the First Direct card.

According to the pdf at the bottom of the Post Office page, you can't use the First Direct card on its own either to pay in or withdraw. To obtain cash you have to cash a First Direct cheque, using your card as a cheque guarantee card. This facility will obviously be no use when the cheque guarantee scheme ends in the summer.

To deposit cash or cheques you have to use a paying-in slip and put them in a special deposit envelope. Both paying-in slips and envelopes to be provided by FD.