NOT impressed with First Direct so far....

No_6

No doubt they will still come out top in the polls though !


Still in love with our Santander accounts,no problems online, so never phone them.

phona

You'll all be happy to hear the regular saver set up was fine I could do it all online.

No_6 wrote: »

Still in love with our Santander accounts,no problems online, so never phone them.

Yes, any bank is absolutely fine if you never have to talk to them...

The whole call answered by a person thing is well and good, but I can't help thinking if an automated system had put me through to the switching team I would have been on hold once instead of twice (per call). If it's a straight choice between dealing with a machine now or a person in 15 minutes, I'll just take the machine thanks.
Perhaps that just shows that I'm not really their target customer...

MiserlyMartin

phebe3 wrote: »

,,,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.

First Direct is just a trading name, at the end of the day its still HSBC. I don't understand how they have achieved such a good rep. I think its a percieved good customer satisfaction, a bit like the emperors new clothes - people haven't realised they aren't that good yet.. That damn smart phone log in thing to get online is a pain in the !!!!, but its far better than nationwides annoying card readers.

Doc_N

MiserlyMartin wrote: »

First Direct is just a trading name, at the end of the day its still HSBC. I don't understand how they have achieved such a good rep. I think its a percieved good customer satisfaction, a bit like the emperors new clothes - people haven't realised they aren't that good yet.. That damn smart phone log in thing to get online is a pain in the !!!!, but its far better than nationwides annoying card readers.

It isn't just a trading name - although it's part of HSBC it operates very much as a self-contained unit, and it operates very differently from the rest of HSBC. The training is different, the staff are different, and the procedures are different. There's not a lot that's the same, in reality.

The problem at the moment is that they've taken on far too many new customers, introduced some daft procedures, and as a result aren't coping too well.

I've been with FD for 25+ years, almost since it began as a telephone bank, and it's the one bank I won't shift from. It's genuinely different, and once these, hopefully temporary, problems are out of the way I'm sure it'll be back on form again.

meer53

MiserlyMartin wrote: »

First Direct is just a trading name, at the end of the day its still HSBC. I don't understand how they have achieved such a good rep. I think its a percieved good customer satisfaction, a bit like the emperors new clothes - people haven't realised they aren't that good yet.. That damn smart phone log in thing to get online is a pain in the !!!!, but its far better than nationwides annoying card readers.

They've been open for 26 years :eek: You will always get complaints, about every bank. It's horses for courses. You have to weigh up what is best for you, some people love them, some don't, i don't think they worry too much about those that don't.

TheEffect

With HSBC Advance, I'm not sure there's much of an appeal for first direct anymore.

first direct run on HSBC systems with a different contact centre. Their internet banking is poorer than HSBCs. Their mobile app is developed by the same people, so any revolutionary mobile app changes will soon-after be rolled out to HSBC as well.

The main difference I've found with first direct is that when applying for credit, they usually look into your application more, pull your credit report and manually look at it by a human (who always seem to be condescending). HSBC seem to just use a computer yes/no decision, which I've always preferred.

Doc_N

TheEffect wrote: »

With HSBC Advance, I'm not sure there's much of an appeal for first direct anymore.

first direct run on HSBC systems with a different contact centre. Their internet banking is poorer than HSBCs. Their mobile app is developed by the same people, so any revolutionary mobile app changes will soon-after be rolled out to HSBC as well.

The main difference I've found with first direct is that when applying for credit, they usually look into your application more, pull your credit report and manually look at it by a human (who always seem to be condescending). HSBC seem to just use a computer yes/no decision, which I've always preferred.

I use both and much prefer First Direct - and that includes the website, which I find cleaner, simpler and easier to use.

I have yet to find a problem, however complex, that cannot be dealt with by FD within just the one phone call, whatever it relates to, provided it's during normal 8-8 banking hours and not at a weekend. I know of no other bank that can achieve that.

colsten

Doc_N wrote: »

I know of no other bank that can achieve that.

WOW. A-ma-zing.

Atilla_the_hen

First Direct is certainly not the bank it used to be. Service and the attitude to account holders has changed for the worst.

It used to be possible to simply phone up and talk to someone and have an intelligent, understandable and efficient conversation. Now on the rare occasions when I phone I get through to a Scottish call centre and I just cannot understand what they say - sorry Scots but we English are not always attuned to the accent.

It used to be possible to just send a secure message using the internet banking login - no longer possible without creating a security number first using that rediculous key pad thing. Are messages really so dangerous they need additional authentication?

The key pad is a pain if you are trying to set up a new payee and I've given up using it. I ring the call centre and get the unintelligable scots lassie and it takes almost as long to set up a payment as it does with the key pad after its been thrown across the room half a dozen times because its so infuriating to use.

Where have all my payees gone? I have a number of family members to whom I occasionally send money as Christmas or birthday presents by crediting their bank accounts but their details have all disappeared. It looks like I am going to endure another call to the Scots lassie to set them up again and how long will they last if I do?

Finally I have been a customer for 20+ years and they hold many thousands of pounds of my money, see regular payments from substantial established organisations into my account but now have the cheek to demand proof of my identity!

Have the idiots taken over the asylum????

colsten

I am not here to defend First Direct, I don't think they are anything special, but I feel compelled to respond.

Atilla_the_hen wrote: »

Are messages really so dangerous they need additional authentication?

would you be happy for an un-authenticated hacker to send messages as "you"?

Atilla_the_hen wrote: »

The key pad is a pain if you are trying to set up a new payee and I've given up using it.

why not use the app?

Atilla_the_hen wrote: »

Where have all my payees gone?

None of my payees, many of whom were set up many years/over a decade ago, have ever disappeared from my FD account. If some of yours have, it would be worth getting to the bottom of how this happened. There may be fraudulent activity on your account.

Atilla_the_hen wrote: »

Finally I have been a customer for 20+ years and they hold many thousands of pounds of my money

Why would you keep 'many thousands of pounds' in FD? with the exception of their Regular Savings account, they have not paid any decent interest on anything for a few years now (last decent rate was in an ISA if you had lots in the ISA but that is distant memory).