NOT impressed with First Direct so far....

masonic

djpailo wrote: »

It seems I was lucky and managed to complete the switch and get the bonus before their change policy regarding T&C reading for twenty odd minutes...

Its just a shame that I still need to open that savings account at some point though..

Apparently, online applications are not yet subject to the pointless reading out of T&Cs over the phone.

nearlyrich

masonic wrote: »

Apparently, online applications are not yet subject to the pointless reading out of T&Cs over the phone.

Halifax read theirs to me to get a new type of credit card last week...

masonic

nearlyrich wrote: »

Halifax read theirs to me to get a new type of credit card last week...

Did you apply for the account online and have to phone them?

phebe3

,,,and still NOTHING from First Direct. We are thinking of withdrawing our application and looking elsewhere...if they don't want our business I'm sure another financial institution will.
It worries me that they are seemingly so ineffecient and uncommunatitive, which are not business traits I would want from a bank/financial institution. Sadly, due to our personal experience, I think they must have gone downhill from when they were voted best for customer service. In my opinion they are the worst by a long way...the other two banks I have dealt with recently (TSB and RBS) have been far more effecient and communitative. I feel there is no excuse in these days of internet and mobile phone communication.

Thrugelmir

phebe3 wrote: »

I feel there is no excuse in these days of internet and mobile phone communication.

Still requires actual people assigned to deal with the work flow. First Direct may not be actively seeking huge numbers of new customers. Instead preferring to focus on existing ones.

slopemaster

I've recently switched my account away from First Direct; I hadn't used it for a while anyway. I always found them fairly inefficient - had to chase them over a problem with my regular saver last year. And internet banking terribly clunky.
I never did get the cash for switching to them either, as apparently I once had a savings account with them years before (?).
I find Lloyds, TSB, Halifax etc are all better.

phona

I've heard about how wonderful First Direct are but having dealt with them myself I was starting to wonder what all the fuss was about!

The actual online application was just fine. Having to call them to set up security and fully open the account was curious, but basically fine.
However, trying to get my switch done was a real pain. For some reason they send the paperwork out by email and ask the customer to phone them again. It took days for the email to arrive and then it was this second call where things came undone: I was on hold for ages just trying to get through to the customer service, never mind the actual switching team! I was short on time this week, and actually gave up a couple of times after being on hold for about 10 minutes. Today I got through and was told the switching team was very busy and they'd arrange a call back tomorrow. Then a few minutes later they called saying the next available call back would be 30th November. Seriously?! By then though the queue was down to a mere 5 minutes, so I joined it and finally my switch date is set.

This is the third time I've used the switching service. The other two times have involved phone calls a bit more lengthy than I'd like, but at least it was all sorted in a single call! For the interested, the two banks switched to were Co-Op and Halifax.

I'm in it for the incentive and the regular saver so I'm willing to put up with some nonsense for the sake of my profit. If I were switching my main account because of the great things I'd heard about how they're different, I probably wouldn't have persevered and instead stayed with my old bank.

So how bad is the regular saver opening process going to be?

Futuristic

phona wrote: »

So how bad is the regular saver opening process going to be?

Luckily its all automated from your online banking and is opened instantly.

MarkFromCornwall

phona wrote: »

So how bad is the regular saver opening process going to be?

I found it very quick and easy. I'd estimate five minutes. One thing to be aware of is that the new account doesn't show online immediately, although the first payment does show as having left your current account, but it sorts itself out the next day.

badger09

phona wrote: »

So how bad is the regular saver opening process going to be?

Futuristic wrote: »

Luckily its all automated from your online banking and is opened instantly.

MarkFromMullion wrote: »

I found it very quick and easy. I'd estimate five minutes. One thing to be aware of is that the new account doesn't show online immediately, although the first payment does show as having left your current account, but it sorts itself out the next day.

phona - I hope your experience mirrors that of Futuristic & MarkFromMullion.

My first regular saver took much longer to open, due, apparently, to a series of technical errors. Sadly, none of these was visible to me, so despite seeing messages to the effect that the account would appear online within a few days, it didn't. If my memory is correct (can't be bothered digging out my notes just now) this happened twice:mad:

Good luck