First direct withdrawl's

J_i_m

First Direct in my view are an excellent bank. This is backed up by their strong performance in customer service polls.

Primarily they are a telephone and internet banking service. They do not have any branches of their own. But as has been pointed out they belong to the HSBC group of companies and you can use the HSBC branch services to make manual deposits and withdraws.

The call centers are also relatively painless. Yes you'll have to remember your passwords and security answers to verify that you are who you say you are but in general it is the most effective service I've ever received from a bank with the minimum of fuss.

I recently moved address, I have various accounts spread out among many banks. First Direct had updated my details within seconds of me calling them... whilst I had to spend ages jumping through hoops with Halifax and Barclays to do the same.

Archi_Bald

J_i_m wrote: »

First Direct in my view are an excellent bank. This is backed up by their strong performance in customer service polls.

Yeah, dead easy to get lots of positive votes if your entire call centre fills in positive surveys every time there is a survey.

Hominu

Archi_Bald wrote: »

Yeah, dead easy to get lots of positive votes if your entire call centre fills in positive surveys every time there is a survey.

Likewise Santander gets a lot of negative votes in surveys simply because of past performance and what people have read in the press.

It takes a long time for people to react to new conditions.

baby_frogmella wrote: »

Since when has Hamilton or Leeds been overseas? :rotfl:

FD have UK call centre staff, but they also have a lot of staff overseas, mainly in India where the HSBC offices are. You can sometimes be called directly from the indian offices for various reasons.

pmduk

baby_frogmella wrote: »

Just because some people have had issues withdrawing/depositing large amounts of cash doesn't mean to say everyone else has as well.

Currently the tales from HSBC show that not only are the rules changing all the time, but there is evidence that you need to prove, on occasion, what you wish to do with the money. It's best to be forewarned.

alanq

Archi_Bald wrote: »

Yeah, dead easy to get lots of positive votes if your entire call centre fills in positive surveys every time there is a survey.

Not that easy when the survey is carried out on a random sample of Which? members.

System

The various people I spoke with to arrange cash withdrawals were clearly in India.

When I asked First Direct, on my next call, they admitted that some functions were carried out by overseas HSBC staff rather than UK based First Direct staff.

baby_frogmella wrote: »

Since when has Hamilton or Leeds been overseas? :rotfl:

username

Cash withdrawals over the counter are serviced by an office in India.

I have never had any problems with withdrawing cash over the counter, just have to call up and give a keyword which you have agreed with the person over the phone and present this with some ID and your bank card at the designated HSBC branch.

Mind you it's not something I do often at all, the last time I had done such was to take out a few grand to buy my car and that was a few years back.

No idea how the strengthened AML rules have impacted upon the service received at HSBC counters, but my experience of withdrawing cash was relatively painless.

username

q3. are there any banks that you can walk into and use a fisrt direct card?

You can use it at any HSBC bank as well at Link ATMs (pretty much every ATM in the UK) and also at any post office to withdraw cash over the counter.

chili1496

Many thanks for the replies 99% of them were very helpful, the 1% was this one below.

alanq wrote: »

If you were unaware that FD is part of HSBC then you have not read the FD Ts&Cs. Had you done so it would have answered your questions more reliably than strangers on a forum.

It is strongly advised that you read the Ts&Cs before applying for an account rather than becoming one of those people who could not be bothered and then comes on these forums complaining when things are not as they had assumed.

http://www2.firstdirect.com/content_static/pdf/account_terms_0114.pdf

Unfortunatly i hate to dissapoint you i hold my hands up and admit i did not read the full term's and conditions. if we lived in the same perfect world as you yourself seem to you would be correct i would not need to come on these forums and direct my question's at total strangers. however it would seem that the majority of the total strangers did not mind 1 bit answering my questions nor did they appear to be too be emotionally effected by the fact that i did not read the terms and conditions prior to posting my question's.
i do hope you sleep well tonight in your snug perfect little world tucked up in your crispy clean sheets. i will probably loose sleep tonight knowing that i have resisted the urge to even click on the link you have so kindly posted
normally i take offence at smug posts like your's and would fire a few choice word's your way however tonight i feel rather mellow and have opted not to lower myself. i will close now by wishing you a happy life and hope you get some release from reading terms and conditions for the rest of your boring perfect existence.

GuttedTBH

Heng_Leng wrote: »

They are awful when you need anything above the £500 ATM limit.

You need to cash a cheque at the HSBC counter or speak to an overseas call centre beforehand to set up the HSBC counter withdrawal.

That was pre their new anti-money laundering rules...

Rubbish.

Never had an issue in over 20 years, and I have had large amounts sorted in minutes while stood in a HSBC branch waiting. Also, I have had my card limit temporarily increased on a number of occasions, to withdraw up to a grand out of a HSBC machine.

:-)