First Direct Loan

naturalbornwinner

Hi all,

Has anyone else taken a loan out with First Direct?

I opened a current account with them sometime last year and applied for a loan with them last month. They laid out the charges etc, and I clicked apply. Bang. Within all of about 2 seconds, the money was in my account. I assume they view me as a good lender, based on the speed that the money was received.

The only 'issue' I have with it, is that there was no email/letter confirmation? I was wondering if anyone has had the same experience with them as this? Also, is there anywhere you can log in to check how much is outstanding, or make extra payments?

Any help, advice will be greatly appreciated. Many thanks.

naturalbornwinner

keith969

Why not call them and ask them?

GingerBob_3

naturalbornwinner wrote: »

Hi all,

Has anyone else taken a loan out with First Direct?

I opened a current account with them sometime last year and applied for a loan with them last month. They laid out the charges etc, and I clicked apply. Bang. Within all of about 2 seconds, the money was in my account. I assume they view me as a good lender, based on the speed that the money was received.

The only 'issue' I have with it, is that there was no email/letter confirmation? I was wondering if anyone has had the same experience with them as this? Also, is there anywhere you can log in to check how much is outstanding, or make extra payments?

Any help, advice will be greatly appreciated. Many thanks.

naturalbornwinner

No, not that I've been able to find. FD online banking is poor in this respect.

naturalbornwinner

Thanks both,

Will give them a call. Just wanted to know if anyone had found a button on their internet banking page. I would rate First Direct very highly for their internet banking and customer service, however it is poor that you're unable to see the loan side of things on internet banking!

Naturalbornwinner

lee111s

Same experience, no confirmation letter or email.

You can make manual overpayment though, you to your "direct debits and standing orders" page and from there you can click "pay" next to the standing order for the loan. However you have to call to get a balance.

glennstar

I'm not a Solicitor but believe I am correct when I say they need to have exchanged the terms and conditions of the loan with you somehow otherwise the agreement is not binding. With a purely online transaction such as this the mechanism is usually en e-sign of some sort.
With Payday Lenders (where real time decisioning and automated underwriting it the norm) this is done via a commercial e-sign offering or more commonly a hand rolled e-sign (by emailing you a PDF containing a numeric code which you then enter into the website or SMS back to them). They usually record date/time, IP address, browser, mobile phone number and other bits to back their claim up that you agree to the contract.
No correspondence from the Lender at all would concern me as I feel this leaves you in quite a difficult situation when the inevitable query/issue arises. Have you implicitly accepted their terms and conditions (whatever they may be) when the money was deposited?

lee111s

glennstar wrote: »

I'm not a Solicitor but believe I am correct when I say they need to have exchanged the terms and conditions of the loan with you somehow otherwise the agreement is not binding. With a purely online transaction such as this the mechanism is usually en e-sign of some sort.
With Payday Lenders (where real time decisioning and automated underwriting it the norm) this is done via a commercial e-sign offering or more commonly a hand rolled e-sign (by emailing you a PDF containing a numeric code which you then enter into the website or SMS back to them). They usually record date/time, IP address, browser, mobile phone number and other bits to back their claim up that you agree to the contract.
No correspondence from the Lender at all would concern me as I feel this leaves you in quite a difficult situation when the inevitable query/issue arises. Have you implicitly accepted their terms and conditions (whatever they may be) when the money was deposited?

When you apply for the loan online, they present you with terms and conditions which you electronically sign by ticking the box confirming you agree to the terms of the loan.

ChemistDude

Same, no letter or email confirmation. I took out £25k in november last year but have since paid off £15k of it. When I called to check they received the funds I asked them about not having any letters/emails or visibility in the online banking. They said they send out a statement each year and that they don't put it on online banking as the remaining balance is calculated only when you call them. When I asked for the figures outstanding they were like £X less a discount of £Y. I'm financially astute but they don't make that aspect simple for laymen.

marissaryan91

No, not yet take. If anyone took first diret loan please tell the procedure.

Mikazaru

When I took my loan out with them I didn't get any confirmation (I don't know if there is an option to download them when you get accepted which I missed) but I sent them a secure message and I got a copy in the post two days later. You can make additional overpayments on on-line banking but if you want to up the amount you pay or find out how much you owe, you have to speak to them,

lee111s

Mikazaru wrote: »

When I took my loan out with them I didn't get any confirmation (I don't know if there is an option to download them when you get accepted which I missed) but I sent them a secure message and I got a copy in the post two days later. You can make additional overpayments on on-line banking but if you want to up the amount you pay or find out how much you owe, you have to speak to them,

Well done for repeating what I said a couple of days ago