What's the appeal with first direct?

dalesrider

grumbler wrote: »

On the anniversary of my account they charged me £25 "Formal overdraft arrangement fees".
I asked them to refund the fee and to stick their interest free overdraft to where it belongs.

Been dropped now, by public demand it would appear.

But just how large was your O/D

My £250 is put to use elsewhere earning some interest.

grumbler

I edited my post to add that it was £500, but I never used it, even free £250.

EarthBoy

If you think that First Direct's online banking is bad you should see the Co-operative Bank's antiquated system for business banking.

Biggles

The pop-up is ridiculously antiquated, I agree. But if you bookmark https://www2.firstdirect.com/1/2/pib-service, it opens in a normal web page.

I don't see the attraction of FD really either but they seem to be the darling of consmuer sites. But I'm happy to use them for their joining bonuses and 8% saver.

meer53

grumbler wrote: »

Well, I couldn't be arsed to argue with them, but the paperwork said: "... charges incurred for banking services for the period 6 Feb 2012 to 5 Mar 2012..."
During this statement month my balance never was lower than £450. And it never was in red, let alone below free -£250, since it was opened in Feb 2011 and the formal overdraft was £500.

If you could have been arsed to call them and the fee wasn't correctly applied, they would have refunded it.

There are no arrangement fees for renewing overdrafts now. You are only charged if you have payments returned or if you go over your agreed overdraft by more than £10.

grumbler

I did call them.
They told me that it was "Formal overdraft arrangement fees".
I said that I don't need overdraft that costs £25 to arrange.
They said that they would refund the fee and remove the overdraft.

Now I can say that the term "formal overdraft arrangement fee" was 100% misleading if the fee was actually supposed to be for

• using overdraft, not arranging it,
• going over the formal limit.

grumbler

dalesrider wrote: »

Been dropped now, by public demand it would appear.

Yes, I've just called them and was told me that they really used to charge £25 just of having this facility, but don't do this anymore.
Had my £500 formal limit reinstated - just in case.

ses6jwg

I've had to call a bank about 3 times in the last 5 years so they are useless to me.

meer53

grumbler wrote: »

I did call them.
They told me that it was "Formal overdraft arrangement fees".
I said that I don't need overdraft that costs £25 to arrange.
They said that they would refund the fee and remove the overdraft.

Now I can say that the term "formal overdraft arrangement fee" was 100% misleading if the fee was actually supposed to be for

• using overdraft, not arranging it,
• going over the formal limit.

Formal overdraft arrangement fee - used to be £25, no longer charged. This fee was charged whether you used the overdraft or not.

Informal overdraft fee - £25, but only charged if you go over your agreed formal overdraft by more than £10.

MarkFromCornwall

Biggles wrote: »

if you bookmark https://www2.firstdirect.com/1/2/pib-service, it opens in a normal web page.

Wow! That's brilliant. You've just fixed the biggest problem with First Direct's online banking with a one-liner. Amazing that FD themselves couldn't do it.

Thanks.
Mark.