Why First Direct is one of the best!

baby_frogmella

Hi

Since everyone has been bashing First Direct over their introduction of the £10 fee for some customers, i thought i would stand up and defend them. Sure, they are not perfect but in my opinion they are one of the best for day to day banking. Try finding a bank who will give you ALL of the following:

1) A £250 cheque guarantee card. £100 is the norm (and starting point) for most banks but some banks dont issue CG cards greater than £100

2) £500 daily cash withdrawal limit on your switch/maestro card without any prior authorization...most banks only offer £250

3) a fee free overdraft of £500. Many charge a fee.

4) UK call centre staff who answer your call within 5 sec (often less) on the 0113 2345678 number...instead of a computer/robot asking you to press #1 for blah blah blah etc

5) Fantastic customer service. The staff are always polite, helpful with a good sense of humour. They have even wished me happy birthday on the few occasions i have called them on my birthday over the years!!!

And from a personal point of view i wonder how many UK banks would have helped me out in this scenario: i went to work in Middle East (Dubai) 10 years ago and had only opened my FD account the previous year in UK. I needed a car loan to buy a car locally so being an optimist I gave FD a call from there and a £8000 loan was arranged AND paid to a local car dealer there....all done in 15 mins over the phone. And no, i didn't have millions in my account at the time, I was only being paid £800 pm at the time. Hows that for service?

Anyway what i'm trying to say is FD is NOT perfect but for day to day banking its one of the best (if not the best) even taking the £10 month charge into account. I only have a bank account with them as I agree with others that their mortgages, savings, credit card products are not that great.

Anyway thats my two-bobs worth, hope i've restored some confidence in all those loyal FD customers.

Cheers

TNG

I would agree.

I can't find fault with them

Once i accidentally went over my o/d limit (I got me dates wrong ). As I was speaking to them they pointed this out to me and I said OMG I can't believe I've done that. Person on end of phone said hang on a minute. Came back on a minute later and said don't worry, understand it's a mistake, won't be making any charges. Didn't ask them to do it, they just did.

Top Customer Service

eslick

think you will find that every FD customer would agree with this, the issue is charging even if you can afford the charge or wont be charged the point is that no bank should charge as they already make millions and billions by using our money. just an example, if you buy a house or take out a loan you pay a CHAPS fee of anything from £25 to £35. When businesses can be charged as little as £1 to £2. There are many other example, the money on accounts doesnt just sit there they invest it. Their interest rates are also pretty poor see this report.

http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/saving-and-banking/article.html?in_article_id=414701&in_page_id=7&ct=5

I for one wont be charged but its the principle for me and my family

seven-day-weekend

baby_frogmella wrote:

Hi


And from a personal point of view i wonder how many UK banks would have helped me out in this scenario: i went to work in Middle East (Dubai) 10 years ago and had only opened my FD account the previous year in UK. I needed a car loan to buy a car locally so being an optimist I gave FD a call from there and a £8000 loan was arranged AND paid to a local car dealer there....all done in 15 mins over the phone. And no, i didn't have millions in my account at the time, I was only being paid £800 pm at the time. Hows that for service?


Cheers

I did the same with Co-Op Bank from Spain.

baby_frogmella

eslick wrote:

think you will find that every FD customer would agree with this, the issue is charging even if you can afford the charge or wont be charged the point is that no bank should charge as they already make millions and billions by using our money. just an example, if you buy a house or take out a loan you pay a CHAPS fee of anything from £25 to £35. When businesses can be charged as little as £1 to £2. There are many other example, the money on accounts doesnt just sit there they invest it. Their interest rates are also pretty poor see this report.

http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/saving-and-banking/article.html?in_article_id=414701&in_page_id=7&ct=5

I for one wont be charged but its the principle for me and my family

Hi eslick

I understand where you're coming from and i know its immoral and downright greedy for banks to charge £10 pm when they make billions in profit. But from my experience working overseas in many countries, a lot of overseas banks have minimum balance requirements for an ordinary bank account. We in UK have been quite lucky so far in that banks have never forced customers to have a minimum balance...though i think this may change one day. Yes i know its painful to accept the £10 charge but i think First Direct are again the "pioneers'...all banks (in my opinion) will charge fees sooner or later for dormant accounts, First Direct are in the firing line cos they were the first ones to do it and the shock is greater initially, its something we're gonna have to get used to whether we like it or not.

baby_frogmella

seven-day-weekend wrote:

I did the same with Co-Op Bank from Spain.

But Spain is part of the EU. If i tried getting any kind of loan from a UK bank whilst residing OUTSIDE the EU most banks would give me a V sign

CopperPlate_2

baby_frogmella wrote:

Hi

Since everyone has been bashing First Direct over their introduction of the £10 fee for some customers, i thought i would stand up and defend them. Sure, they are not perfect but in my opinion they are one of the best for day to day banking. Try finding a bank who will give you ALL of the following:

1) A £250 cheque guarantee card. £100 is the norm (and starting point) for most banks but some banks dont issue CG cards greater than £100

2) £500 daily cash withdrawal limit on your switch/maestro card without any prior authorization...most banks only offer £250

3) a fee free overdraft of £500. Many charge a fee.

4) UK call centre staff who answer your call within 5 sec (often less) on the 0113 2345678 number...instead of a computer/robot asking you to press #1 for blah blah blah etc

5) Fantastic customer service. The staff are always polite, helpful with a good sense of humour. They have even wished me happy birthday on the few occasions i have called them on my birthday over the years!!! Cheers

1 - Why on earth would anyone bother with a cheque card nowadays? Since petrol stations and various other retailers (Next being one of them) are refusing to take cheques. £100 card is more than enough anyway since if it was any more than that the extra protection of paying by credit card is better after that.

2 - Same as above. I can't ever remember thinking, on the spot, "Oh, I must go and take that £500 out of the bank. Blast! I can only take out £250 today!" Online banking has done away effectively with the need (for me anyway, and I'm sure others) to withdraw vast sums from ATM's. The security aspect of only being able to withdraw £250 at a time is an advantage too if someone gets a hold of your card and PIN.

3 - smile offers this too. So does just about every other bank.

4 - Granted that is an advantage, but how many times do you actually need to call your bank. Secure messages systems are brilliant (usually - with smile they are as good if not better than FD's). Saynoto0870.com is also a God-send.

5 - Well, that says it all. Yes the customer service is good, probably excellent, but I've found smile to be as good as FD in those stakes. The times I need to actually speak to anyone are few and far between though.

All in all, it ain't worth a tenner a month. Especially when you'll be paying for what you've already been getting up until now.

CopperPlate_2

As an aside I think HSBC has a nerve given that they are the UK's largest bank (by a mile) and made a profit of £10.8 billion to March 2006 on the previous year. That's £10,800,000,000 - PROFIT. And they plead poverty that they can't operate current accounts at a high enough profit, hence the need to introduce 'incentives' for customer retention.

Dead_Eye_Jones

is all that worth £120 a year? Personally I dont think so, but people will make their own minds up. As a confident online banker Ill always go for a high interest easy access free account for aslong as they exist, the 'extras' are no real attraction, but obviously other people will think its worth the fee.

I dont really buy into the moral/greed argument, banks are providing a service, they have no obligation to exist, at the end of the day it all feeds the wider economy so we all benefit...

ckerrd

Don't agree with the charge but won't be moving as I won't be paying it ....yet.

Had to phone their customer service when ATM ate my card. (All very dodgy some guy appeared as if by magic offerng to help me, but that's another story)
Woman at FD asked if I was okay, was I far from home, offered to get me a taxi home. As I was on my way out with my mate for a few drinks I asked if she could order me a taxi for later, but their customer service does not stretch that far.

farhad1965

Totally agree with Baby F ... FD have always been superb over the past 13 years and having thought about moving from them for the past 2 days I have decided to stay put.