First Direct v Nationwide v Halifax v Anyone else!

Archi_Bald

Bloomberg wrote: »

Most banks will update their website as soon as a purchase is made - the available balance will reduce although the name of the merchant won't show until at least the following day.

Nationwide on line statements are a full day behind which is hopeless. That is more of a reason to leave rather than because of one rude individual.

If you mean by "update their website" that they update your account data available online: no bank/BS can guarantee that your purchases will be reflected immediately, or within x hours of you having made a purchase. There are plenty of factors that are outside their control, such as

• the payment provider network experiences problems
• the retailer's network experiences problems
• in the case of online purchases, the retailer won't charge your card until the product is despatched

And then there are the DDs, CPAs and SOs that can come out of your account overnight. So even if your online balance shows £100 at 9pm, it doesn't necessarily mean you can go clubbing with the money and not be overdrawn in the morning.

It's been mentioned on here countless times - - you cannot rely on your bank to manage availability of your funds. You have to do it yourself.

Therefore it's pretty much irrelevant if it takes 24 hours, or more, for some of your purchases to be reflected in your online transaction log.

Hominu

I always find Nationwide's statement annoying with their silly "Mini statements" which show barely any information at all, and there "Full statement" is typically several days behind, even for ATM withdrawals.

J_i_m

If it's the customer service you're after and not a headline (customer grabbing) special offer.

Go for First Direct.

matttye

First Direct

Depends what you want from your bank. Santander 123 pays interest and cashback.

First direct has a joining incentive and top customer service, plus a 6% regular saver.

dazanteney4

matttye wrote: »

Depends what you want from your bank. Santander 123 pays interest and cashback.

Stantander is not for me, I wouldn't gain anything. The cash back is for water council tax etc which I don't current pay.

ColdIron

dazanteney4 wrote: »

Stantander is not for me, I wouldn't gain anything. The cash back is for water council tax etc which I don't current pay.

No mobile phone or broadband package? At 3% these pay the most cash back and should easily cover the fee

Gromitt

dazanteney4 wrote: »

Stantander is not for me, I wouldn't gain anything. The cash back is for water council tax etc which I don't current pay.

If you have savings of £5000 or more then its still worthwhile, even after the £24 account fee.

£5000 * 0.03 = £150, minus BRT = £120 - account fee = £96
£96 on £5000 is equivalent to 1.92% - better than most current savings accounts!

dazanteney4

ColdIron wrote: »

No mobile phone or broadband package? At 3% these pay the most cash back and should easily cover the fee

Nope, company mobile and bband so I don't pay anything.

funny.money

First Direct

rb10 wrote: »

If you are looking for decent online banking and/or mobile app, then stay well away from First Direct.

I'm not sure why you say this, what exactly do you find wrong with FD's online banking, it's user friendly, does all you could want, I've been with FD for 20 years or so, they're brilliant, on line and on the phone they're the best-by a long way.

rb10

funny.money wrote: »

I'm not sure why you say this, what exactly do you find wrong with FD's online banking, it's user friendly, does all you could want, I've been with FD for 20 years or so, they're brilliant, on line and on the phone they're the best-by a long way.

Most other banks (Santander, Nationwide, Halifax, Lloyds, Barclays) are rather more advanced with their online banking.

Think about the layout of the screen. With First Direct, there's a huge list of options on the left hand side, whereas most banks will have a clearly-identified button called 'Payments' (or similar) that takes you into all 'payments'-related activities.

Why do I need to see 'credit card options' for my current account?

Why does it keep inviting me to turn off paper statements when they are already turned off?

And the number of screens it takes to perform a task. With FD, if you're on your current account and click on 'payments', then 'direct debits', it'll ask you to choose what account you want to see DDs for (even though you've already gone through your current account and have no other eligible accounts).

The website appears to be stuck in the 1990s ... it has the look & feel of a basic HTML website from about 1997. Maybe that's what their customers want? If you try to download a statement, it'll give Quicken 97 (?!) as the first option, but won't let you do it in PDF.

There doesn't appear to be a way to search statements, or view more than a few transactions at a time ... but maybe I just haven't found it yet.

All in all, the banks I listed above have moved properly into the 21st century in terms of both features and design ... First Direct even make HSBC and Natwest's online banking look modern and slick.

It may well be a case of what you are used to - and I am used to banks with more up-to-date functionality.