First Direct £10 monthly banking fee (merged)

Phoenix79_2

I'm getting fed up of eveyone jumping on the moral bandwagon about this and trying to persuade people to leave FD. If you want to leave FD because of the charges then fair enough....thats your choice. If people are happy with the service and want to stay with FD then let them! Stop trying to guilt-trip them into closing their account and leave them alone!

RedOnRed

Phoenix79 wrote:

Stop trying to guilt-trip them into closing their account and leave them alone!

No one's trying to "guilt trip" anyone. It's clearly an emotive issue and we're just freely expressing our opinions and will continue to do so.

I've been with First Direct since the early 90's and although their new charge won't apply to me I still find it an alarming development for those people it does apply to.

SparciaM

With regards to people saying that all banks will start charging - if this does happen then the government will have to step in and change the law in which we all get paid.

Up until the 80s we all paid for bank accounts, BUT, had the choice of how are wages were paid - bank, cheque, cash etc. So if all banks charge and the "poor" cannot afford the charge, then either the government will have to subsidise them, OR, they'll have to change the law that says all wages have to paid into a bank.

IMO, the government wont subsidise people to have bank accounts AND wont change the law on wages, so we will see "free" bank accounts, but they will be very basic - as a lot of people in the UK may not be able to afford a monthly charge, but have no choice, due to the government saying all wages go into a bank.

Look to other countries, they pay for all transactions etc but I believe they do have good service etc, so I don't mind paying as long as I get something for it.

I'm not paying FD, HSBC or any other bank £10 to wait in a queue for 5 mins to get through to India to sort out my banking or to get 0.1% interest. If banks start to charge, something has to give - either interest rates or Customer service.

People reckon we're heading for the Black Wednesday again of the 80s, when interest rates were 18% and the houses crashed, they believe that banks chargin will push this closer. Hmmm! If you HAVE to pay, then get an account that gives you extras.!.

Phoenix79_2

RedOnRed wrote:

No one's trying to "guilt trip" anyone. It's clearly an emotive issue and we're just freely expressing our opinions and will continue to do so.

I've been with First Direct since the early 90's and although their new charge won't apply to me I still find it an alarming development for those people it does apply to.

Like i said......if you want to close your account and vent then fair enough. Its the people who say..

I would therefore urge all customers of First Direct to close their accounts on principle regardless of whether they have to pay the £10 or not

That i'm referring to.

moneymode

SparciaM wrote:

FD_EMPLOYEE

You and FD mention "A DEEPER RELATIONSHIP WITH IT'S CUSTOMERS" etc, BUT you don't offer any good products that will make a deeper relationship. You say you want to be to re-consider closing my accounts, but your interest rates are at the bottom of every table. Espicially on your ISA, CC etc - So why would I deepen my relationship with a bank that I'm loosing money with.

I wouldn't mind paying a £10 charge if I was getting something for it, yet all I get with FD is someone picking up the phone within 30 secs and a UK person (which I get at smile, a UK person that is), then get transferred around to different people to sort out my banking. But how many times in the last 10 years of online banking have I phone my bank? About 3 times, so I DON'T need good phone service, I need good internet service and rates and at this moment in time FD don't offer that.

You want to deepend your relationship with customers, then put the minimum to pay in at the national average, not a stupid £24,000 a year - which according to the money guardian about 45% of the population don't earn and increase your interest rates, or with the e-saver don't have a penalty for withdrawing money in a month, or reduce your OD interest rate - as I see in the new T&Cs that this has been increased.

FD are a a bank, you want customers to stay, then give them something to stay for!!!!

What is it with you!!!

FD was and still is a telephone bank(yes it has internet banking) but it is primarily a telephone bank. So what,you only have to phone 3 times a year...gold star to you!!

Some people dont like using the internet and rely on the phone service.

When you call FD the call centre rep can carry out most requests. If your query is about a mortgage,loan,shares etc then yes you will be transferred to the relevant dept to someone that specializes in that. You are never transferred to various people that is just rubbish.

mrcow

moneymode wrote:

FD was and still is a telephone bank(yes it has internet banking) but it is primarily a telephone bank.

75% of customer contact with FD is electronic. 70% of their customers use internet banking. How does that primarily make it a telephone bank?

chrisnorden

Does nobody use a spell checker any more??

RedOnRed

Phoenix79 wrote:

Like i said......if you want to close your account and vent then fair enough. Its the people who say..

That i'm referring to.

...and who's saying I want to close my account?

...and if people want to close their accounts then good on 'em. Quite frankly FD would deserve it in return for taking indiscriminate draconian action against their less well off account holders.

Facist Draconians!

CopperPlate_2

Oh come on, that's a bit OTT isn't it? If people want to close their account, fair enough. It's all down to choice. But those who are leaving on principle shouldn't encourage others to do the same. You should only leave fd if you feel that the £10 charge will affect you and you're not prepared to pay for the service you receive or you feel it is a matter of principle for you. Encouraging others to follow the lead when the charge neither affects them nor overly bothers them in principle will just lead to people causing themselves a great deal of unnecessary hassle closing their accounts and transferring to another provider, only to find that perhaps the grass isn't always greener.

As I said before, no-one makes this kind of song and dance when A&L charge a fiver for failing to deposit £500 a month into their Premier Direct Account. And, it has to be said, A&L generally provide a less comparable level of customer service than fd, IMO.

Bottom line is, if you want to leave fd, then leave. Make your voice heard to the bank that you're not happy, but stop trying to enlist those who are happy to stay into moving or feeling that they are somehow morally bankrupt if they decide to keep their accounts with fd.

RedOnRed

I think that a lot of people are quite right when they say that many of First Direct's products aren't competitive. Which is a surprise when you think that they don't have any branches to run.

I think that for anyone that has been in two minds whether to leave then this issue might just about make up their mind. Thinking about it, the only reason why i've been with them so long is simply because of their superb service and certainly not due to their attractive products.

I don't suppose FD will mind that much if the people they are targetting leave. They obviously don't care much for them anyway. It's the unexpected deserters they might be concerned about.