First Direct from Lloyds Bank

Rob_Parry

I am considering moving my bank account from Lloyds Bank to First Direct. We have been with Lloyds now for 28 years but they seem intent now on charging us for going overdrawn even though we have a £1K overfraft limit agreed. We only tend to go overdrawn by a few pound once in a while but they now charge you £6 pound for that month. We already pay them a monthly fee for the account.
We have looked on the Moneysavingexpert site and it would seem that First Direct looks the best bet. I was wondering what others think of First Direct and if they had any issues when transfer they accounts across.

Archi_Bald

There is a huge MSE forum users following for First Direct - probably 95% of them working at First Direct. MSE get paid a referral fee every time somebody uses their link to sign up to FD. So the vast number of recommendations you get for FD are almost certainly biased in some way.

FD do give all their customers a £250 free overdrafts, so if you require a small free overdraft, they are one of the very few that offer this.

If you are looking for getting interest on your money whilst not overdrawn, TSB are way better than First Direct because FD pay 0% and TSB pay 5%. FD do have a very useful Regular Savings account, though if you are a regular overdraft user, this is probably not for you because it locks you money away for 12 months.

Overdrafts can be recalled by all banks at any time, so you are running a certain risk if you depend on overdrafts. Much better to rid yourself of the dependency on overdrafts.

If you are looking for modern online banking, you will be sadly disappointed by FD. But it still lets you do the basic tasks. And you can get paid £100 for signing up if you follow their rules for it.

I do have an FD account, but only for access to their Regular Saver, and I did get their sign-up bonus many years ago. My day-to-day transactions are at Santander since they pay me cashback for our Direct Debits. All spending happens on cashback credit cards that get paid off in full each month. We also use the TSB account I mentioned above for savings.

baby_frogmella

Archi_Bald wrote: »

There is a huge MSE forum users following for First Direct - probably 95% of them working at First Direct. MSE get paid a referral fee every time somebody uses their link to sign up to FD. So the vast number of recommendations you get for FD are almost certainly biased in some way.

Total codswallop. First Direct come out on top of customer satisfaction surveys not because they pay you 0 pence a month in interest on their current account, not because they have the best internet banking, and certainly not because they pick up the phone after 2 rings. No, the reason why people rave about them is because they do what a bank is supposed to do...which is not to make any c0ck-ups when looking after your money...in the rare cases they do make a mistake, they're quick to put things right without sending you in circles.Having been with other major banks/building societies, First Direct are light years ahead of others in terms of the service they offer.

Here's an example of FD's excellent service: I lost my wallet containing all my cards on the Dubai metro a few months back whilst there on business. Called Barclaycard to cancel my card and was told a replacement could only be sent to my home address. Ditto for Halifax clarity card. Ditto for Tesco mastercard. Ditto for Nationwide CC. FD had my debit card sent by courier (DHL) to my hotel in Dubai and it arrived 2 days later. They even offered to let me withdraw cash from my current account via a local HSBC branch in UAE using my passport of course. Luckily i still had cash on me so declined but it just goes to show how good FD are.

No doubt you will say i work for FD :rotfl:

BMN

baby_frogmella wrote: »

Total codswallop. First Direct come out on top of customer satisfaction surveys not because they pay you 0 pence a month in interest on their current account, not because they have the best internet banking, and certainly not because they pick up the phone after 2 rings. No, the reason why people rave about them is because they do what a bank is supposed to do...which is not to make any c0ck-ups when looking after your money...in the rare cases they do make a mistake, they're quick to put things right without sending you in circles.Having been with other major banks/building societies, First Direct are light years ahead of others in terms of the service they offer.

Here's an example of FD's excellent service: I lost my wallet containing all my cards on the Dubai metro a few months back whilst there on business. Called Barclaycard to cancel my card and was told a replacement could only be sent to my home address. Ditto for Halifax clarity card. Ditto for Tesco mastercard. Ditto for Nationwide CC. FD had my debit card sent by courier (DHL) to my hotel in Dubai and it arrived 2 days later. They even offered to let me withdraw cash from my current account via a local HSBC branch in UAE using my passport of course. Luckily i still had cash on me so declined but it just goes to show how good FD are.

No doubt you will say i work for FD :rotfl:

Errr don't get too carried away. Archi Bald didn't say that First Direct don't provide excellent service.

It was just pointed out that there may be an element of bias with the MSE "Best Bank Accounts" page and the MSE Customer Service polls because MSE gets paid a referral fee each time that a new customer signs up to First Direct using a link from MSE.

Thrugelmir

Why throw away many years of built up history. Onus is on you to manage your accounts properly. Since advent of internet banking I've never had an issue. Really no excuse for going overdrawn without knowing it.

Free_Spirit_31

Be prepared for First Direct to question your income and expenditure if you are constantly overdrawn, even if you are within the interest free overdraft amount. They may also want to call you and ask about your finances and run through a credit check with you even though you are not asking for further borrowing.

Gromitt

Free_Spirit_31 wrote: »

Be prepared for First Direct to question your income and expenditure if you are constantly overdrawn

I'm constantly overdrawn, as the free overdraft funds my regular saver I pay it off once a month to bring the account into credit and then the next day £300 is transferred to my regular saver and I'm £249.99 overdrawn again. Never received a single message or phone call from them (well, they do seem to keep trying to offer me loans via secure messages and snail mail, I wonder if that's due to the account conduct?)

Archi_Bald

baby_frogmella wrote: »

Total codswallop. ........., the reason why people rave about them is because they do what a bank is supposed to do...which is not to make any c0ck-ups when looking after your money.......

It is a complete given that banks do not make "c0ck-ups when looking after your money". Which bank does not live up to that? When you give examples, please exclude those where the account holder messed up.

Sorry to hear you lost your wallet - serious nightmare stuff if, even if you are all prepared and have a record of all the cards and phone numbers. Plus all the other stuff you might have in your wallet - driving licence, membership cards, cash etc etc etc. Just as well a passport doesn't normally fit into a wallet. It has never happened to me, touch wood, and hope it never will, though I have made provisions to have emergency access to cash and cards when I travel. I do have a First Direct account myself, but their debit card would not be my card of choice to take on foreign travels. I prefer to follow the MSE cheap travel money guidance.

System

Absolute codswallop.

I found them to be polite until but they made a mistake; they initially blamed me and even when i pointed out it was actually their fault they became condescending. I ended up having to chase the missing payment myself and the other bank apologised even though it was First Direct's fault.

Their Internet banking is clunky and slow. The only way to find out an available balance was by pretending to send a bill payment.

Couriered card replacements in the UAE don't factor high on my banking wishlist.

baby_frogmella wrote: »

Total codswallop.
First Direct come out on top of customer satisfaction surveys not because they pay you 0 pence a month in interest on their current account, not because they have the best internet banking, and certainly not because they pick up the phone after 2 rings. No, the reason why people rave about them is because they do what a bank is supposed to do...which is not to make any c0ck-ups when looking after your money...in the rare cases they do make a mistake, they're quick to put things right without sending you in circles.Having been with other major banks/building societies, First Direct are light years ahead of others in terms of the service they offer.

GingerFurball_2

Rob_Parry wrote: »

I am considering moving my bank account from Lloyds Bank to First Direct. We have been with Lloyds now for 28 years but they seem intent now on charging us for going overdrawn even though we have a £1K overfraft limit agreed. We only tend to go overdrawn by a few pound once in a while but they now charge you £6 pound for that month. We already pay them a monthly fee for the account.
We have looked on the Moneysavingexpert site and it would seem that First Direct looks the best bet. I was wondering what others think of First Direct and if they had any issues when transfer they accounts across.

So you're complaining about the standard overdraft usage fee on the account that is quite clearly laid out in the terms and conditions?

Overdrafts aren't free money !!!!!!.

baby_frogmella

Heng_Leng wrote: »

Their Internet banking is clunky and slow.
.

Actually due to their simple black & white colour scheme as well as no ads, i find their online banking fast. Good example: when you click to make a faster payment it takes only a second or two compare that with the likes of HBoS where you get a spinning circle which just seems to spin forever. And when was the last time the FD online banking site was down for maintenance? In my experience its down no more than 2-3 times a year, compare that with the likes of Nationwide or HBoS where their IB is down almost every weekend.

Heng_Leng wrote: »

Couriered card replacements in the UAE don't factor high on my banking wishlist.

Ermmmm i just gave an example, i didn't say FD couriered cards to UAE only. Pretty sure they would have done the same if i was in USA or Australia. Its a big advantage to know your debit card can be replaced almost anywhere in the world should you lose it. Perhaps you never leave Engur-land? Then i apologise:rotfl: