Switching Banks - Not an easy procedure

carrieanne12

Hello Everyone!

Tried switching banks from Nationwide to First Direct after seeing all the supposedly good reviews. After two days of phone calls, a 12 mile round trip to an HSBC branch to prove my identity and numerous emails it seems that I am not classed as a new customer due to an old ISA account with First Direct that I had totally forgotten about. This was opened in 2009 and funds withdrawn in 2010 and was classed as dormant. Therfore not eligable for the benefits ie £125. Sorry but I have to disagree that switching accounts is easy and will definitely not be banking with First Direct! Total waste of time.

jonesMUFCforever

Sorry I disagree the switching is easy - claiming so called bribes for doing so not so easy.

grumbler

To be fair to the OP, FD are notorious for overcomplicated ID checks. The OP was lucky to be able to do this in HSBC branch instead of paying through the nose for copies certified by at solicitor.

Archi_Bald

It seems you were only after the £125. It is very clear on their front page that "This offer is only available for people who haven't previously held any account with first direct and is limited to one payment per customer or joint relationship. "

Getting turned down for the switching bonus

1. does not prove that switching isn't easy, and
2. doesn't stop you from switching to First Direct without a bonus

If you had asked on this forum earlier, people would soon have told you that you don't need to apply for the switching bonus if you ever had an account with First Direct in the past.

Only one responsible for the wasted time is yourself.

Hominu

It sounds like an easy switch according to the new 7 day ruling. You applied, proved id and they setup the account. It was your choice to drive around for 12 miles. You could have chosen a more local bank.

The fact you didn't get the switching bonus due to a condition you didn't meet is nothing to do with the switching part.

It seems you only actually wanted the switching incentive and became disgruntled when you didn't get it.

Frozen_up_north

I am in the process of switching from Smile to Santander... I had the following issues:

Having been a former Abbey Bank customer, Santander already had my details on file from a few years ago, however Smile only had a single middle initial on their file, so under the rules the names didn't match and they couldn't start the process over the phone. Smile couldn't add another initial over the phone... I had to take my passport and debit card to a Co-Op Bank (or Britannia BS) in order to change my name with Smile, fortunately it only took a matter of seconds but involved a 30 mile round trip. For good measure I took my passport and a utility bill into a Santander branch, I am not sure if that was really necessary, but in order to avoid having to make another trip I did it while passing.

The direct debits vanished from my Smile account in a matter of a couple of days and I had a DD due to go out before the final change over day, so I manually transferred enough money to the 123 account "just in case", however despite there being no DDs set up on the Smile account, I noted this morning that an existing DD did work correctly with the Smile account.

There are currently over a hundred duplicate "bill payments" set up on my new Santander 123 account, I've asked them via a secure message to delete the duplicates... It's not a big issue to manually go through and delete the unwanted ones, but why they appeared is a mystery.

Despite a pile of letters from Santander, I've not received a cheque book and not sure if they automatically issue one or not.

Finally, new Santander 123 account debit cards don't appear to work to draw cash from Post Offices... A bit annoying as pretty much every other bank user can.

My change over day is tomorrow. I'll repost if there are any issues.

pqrdef

Oh, that's another thing about this bank switching. If I have a great big long list of one-off payees on my old account, do I have to set them all up again on the new account, going through the card reader / phone call / text message rigmarole for each one?

pmduk

Frozen_up_north wrote: »

Finally, new Santander 123 account debit cards don't appear to work to draw cash from Post Offices... A bit annoying as pretty much every other bank user can.

My change over day is tomorrow. I'll repost if there are any issues.

The time to check whether a new bank account has the facilities you want is before switching not after. Not all banks offer all facilities, it's called competition.

Archi_Bald

pqrdef wrote: »

Oh, that's another thing about this bank switching. If I have a great big long list of one-off payees on my old account, do I have to set them all up again on the new account, going through the card reader / phone call / text message rigmarole for each one?

I'd say yes, since the only things they have talked about are DDs and SOs.

Though I might be wrong, having read what Frozen_up_north says

Frozen_up_north wrote: »

There are currently over a hundred duplicate "bill payments" set up on my new Santander 123 account, I've asked them via a secure message to delete the duplicates

Frozen_up_north

pmduk wrote: »

The time to check whether a new bank account has the facilities you want is before switching not after. Not all banks offer all facilities, it's called competition.

I did check, the Post Office web site says Santander accounts work, unfortunately in practice that isn't the case...See:
http://www.postoffice.co.uk/branch-banking-services#withdrawals_&_deposits
Spot the difference between Smile and Santander... there is no difference except the former works and the latter doesn't.

pqrdef wrote: »

Oh, that's another thing about this bank switching. If I have a great big long list of one-off payees on my old account, do I have to set them all up again on the new account, going through the card reader / phone call / text message rigmarole for each one?

These are switched over automatically, however in my case (Smile to Santander 123), it appears they take every payment since time began and add them to the "bill payments" on the new account, which resulted in over 100 payments listed as "Visa"...:mad:

rb10

pqrdef wrote: »

Oh, that's another thing about this bank switching. If I have a great big long list of one-off payees on my old account, do I have to set them all up again on the new account, going through the card reader / phone call / text message rigmarole for each one?

Bill payments are switched as well.

Nationwide wrote:

The companies you pay Direct Debit payments to are contacted and your standing orders and bill payments are being set up for your Nationwide current account.