First Direct - obsolete bill payments can now be deleted

mrmajika

Just a heads up for anyone who as a First Direct account...

Old /obsolete bill payments can now be deleted by secure message or over the phone.

Up until now, it's not been possible to do this and I know it's a real bugbear for many FD account holders (including myself).

Still not great that you can't do it for yourself, but a step forward none the less.
:beer:

GFA

mrmajika wrote: »

Just a heads up for anyone who as a First Direct account...

Old /obsolete bill payments can now be deleted by secure message or over the phone.

Up until now, it's not been possible to do this and I know it's a real bugbear for many FD account holders (including myself).

Still not great that you can't do it for yourself, but a step forward none the less.
:beer:

That is useful to know - thank you!

Milarky

This is why FD has to be good at customer service - to make up for their dismal online features. Even then, it's still less convenient to expect customers to have to phone up to make any changes (just deletions is it?) they could do themselves if allowed to.

seriousDFW

I honestly don't know why people think FD's online service is so terrible. I find it really easy to use and there's nothing I can't do. I have experience of Halifax, HSBC and Barclays online banking services for comparison and I find FD's the easiest to use.

Which bank offers the best online banking service?

samwsmith1

seriousDFW wrote: »

I honestly don't know why people think FD's online service is so terrible. I find it really easy to use and there's nothing I can't do. I have experience of Halifax, HSBC and Barclays online banking services for comparison and I find FD's the easiest to use.

Which bank offers the best online banking service?

I would agree with you on all points there.
The worst I think are Co-Op for it's 'old fashioned' layout, followed by Halifax as that always seems basic in comparison to FD & I'm not a fan on Natwest OLB either.

Of all of them I think FD has the best offering in terms of OLB, all that they are lacking now is an Android app.

anselld

mrmajika wrote: »

Just a heads up for anyone who as a First Direct account...

Old /obsolete bill payments can now be deleted by secure message or over the phone.

Up until now, it's not been possible to do this and I know it's a real bugbear for many FD account holders (including myself).

Still not great that you can't do it for yourself, but a step forward none the less.
:beer:

Apparently not!

Just got this reply today ....

"At present, we do not have the facility to delete payment destinations. However, we are able to place the words 'DO NOT USE' against specific beneficiaries, which will help prevent you selecting that payment in future. You may contact us if you wish to place the above instruction on any payment destination.

Please be aware, if a payment destination is not used for 13 months, it will be automatically deleted from the system."

.... ie same old story!!

GFA

anselld wrote: »

Apparently not!

Just got this reply today ....

"At present, we do not have the facility to delete payment destinations. However, we are able to place the words 'DO NOT USE' against specific beneficiaries, which will help prevent you selecting that payment in future. You may contact us if you wish to place the above instruction on any payment destination.

Please be aware, if a payment destination is not used for 13 months, it will be automatically deleted from the system."

.... ie same old story!!

Ditto for me - what a pain!! I wonder if OP managed to get his old payments deleted?

mrmajika

anselld wrote: »

Apparently not!

Just got this reply today ....

"At present, we do not have the facility to delete payment destinations. However, we are able to place the words 'DO NOT USE' against specific beneficiaries, which will help prevent you selecting that payment in future. You may contact us if you wish to place the above instruction on any payment destination.

Please be aware, if a payment destination is not used for 13 months, it will be automatically deleted from the system."

I got this the first time I asked via secure messaging. It seems the staff working there haven't been fully updated.

GFA wrote: »

Ditto for me - what a pain!! I wonder if OP managed to get his old payments deleted?

I can confirm that 5 obsolete bill payments were deleted from my account on the second time of asking.

https://twitter.com/#!/firstdirecthelp/status/188065268789022721
is the link on Twitter that their CS confirm that they can be deleted.

and if you can be bothered going digging, they confirm the same in FD labs here
http://www.lab.firstdirect.com/your-suggestions

Don't give up. It can definitely be done. Good luck.:)

EarthBoy

First Direct are telling people on their Lab page that they can delete beneficiaries, so somebody at FD is getting confused:

http://www.lab.firstdirect.com/live-tests/debit-card-redesign

first direct comment added: 02/04/2012
Hi @ On the move, sorry to hear you are unhappy with the service, we have just introduced the facility to delete payment beneficiaries. If you wish to delete any unwanted details please call us on 08456 100 100.

GFA

mrmajika wrote: »

I got this the first time I asked via secure messaging. It seems the staff working there haven't been fully updated.

I can confirm that 5 obsolete bill payments were deleted from my account on the second time of asking.

https://twitter.com/#!/firstdirecthelp/status/188065268789022721
is the link on Twitter that their CS confirm that they can be deleted.

and if you can be bothered going digging, they confirm the same in FD labs here
http://www.lab.firstdirect.com/your-suggestions

Don't give up. It can definitely be done. Good luck.:)

Thanks mrmajika for the confirmation and more importantly the links! I'll try again armed with this info and hopefully the second time will be the charm! Given how good their customer service is normally, it is disappointing that all of their staff haven't been appraised of this latest development! Oh well ...!

mrmajika

GFA wrote: »

Given how good their customer service is normally, it is disappointing that all of their staff haven't been appraised of this latest development! Oh well ...!

I've always had mixed to poor results with the secure messaging. The English is sometimes a bit pigeon like too. I reckon that the secure messaging support is completed by the HSBC back end staff, based overseas.