Switching to First Direct

chrismcfet

Hi folks, following one of Martin's emails (and a quick calculation on how much I'm loosing with Halifax) I'm VERY tempted to switch to First Direct bank. They seem to have great reviews.

One element I'm concerned about is mobile banking. I use it daily and the Halifax app is great. The Apple App Store has a lot of bad reviews for the First Direct banking app. Any FD customers on here? What are your experiences with the app?

Thanks, Chris

Futuristic

It's quite awful in terms of user experience but what do you need it for? If it's just for checking balance it will be ok

YorkshireBoy

chrismcfet wrote: »

(and a quick calculation on how much I'm loosing with Halifax)

In what way are you "losing" at Halifax? You should actually be gaining £5 a month with a Reward account.

chrismcfet

Hi Futuristic, thanks for the quick reply. I mainly use the mobile app for checking my balance, transferring funds within accounts and also paying people with BACs etc.

Futuristic

chrismcfet wrote: »

Hi Futuristic, thanks for the quick reply. I mainly use the mobile app for checking my balance, transferring funds within accounts and also paying people with BACs etc.

Will do all that, sometimes I get a error and have to try again but other then that its ok.

chrismcfet

YorkshireBoy wrote: »

In what way are you "losing" at Halifax? You should actually be gaining £5 a month with a Reward account.

Hi YorkshireBoy, I've got an Ultimate Reward a/c at the minute which I plan to cancel and just avail of the 5 monthly credit. However with the deals around at the minute I'm essentially loosing 100 a year by not switching.

colsten

chrismcfet wrote: »

also paying people with BACs etc.

You don't pay people via BACS. It's all done by Faster Payment these days.

chrismcfet

colsten wrote: »

You don't pay people via BACS. It's all done by Faster Payment these days.

Can that be done within the First Direct app?

colsten

Of course it can.

YorkshireBoy

chrismcfet wrote: »

Hi YorkshireBoy, I've got an Ultimate Reward a/c at the minute which I plan to cancel and just avail of the 5 monthly credit. However with the deals around at the minute I'm essentially loosing 100 a year by not switching.

You've lost around £700 over the last 12 months by not switching!

If Halifax suits, then simply downgrade to Reward and open another Halifax Current Account and switch that to FD for your £150.

chrismcfet

YorkshireBoy wrote: »

You've lost around £700 over the last 12 months by not switching!

If Halifax suits, then simply downgrade to Reward and open another Halifax Current Account and switch that to FD for your £150.

So you're suggesting downgrade my current account. Open another account and switch it to FD? Have you done something similar successfully? This is all new to me.