Closing Bank Accounts

Toe-Jam

Heng_Leng wrote: »

'Dear First Direct (HSBC Bank plc), your telephone service is highly variable and your internet banking is from the 90's, can you fix this please'.

P.S. My Mexican cousins said you provide excellent money laundering services xx

I have just joined. It's true their Internet banking is shockingly bad. It has had no development in years still pops up in an 800x600 box:rotfl: and doesn't even show you your actual balance unless you attempt a transfer.

Soon as i get my £100 i'll be off.

Toe-Jam

Ballard wrote: »

Once in I can look at the movement on all of my accounts and make payments. I'm not sure what else I want.

I'm not sure about you, but I want my bank to be able to tell me how much money I have actually got to spend, not a figure from 2 days ago before I made a load of debit card payments.

Whats the point in having a "pending payments" button on your app if it doesn't actually show you any pending payments.

andrewmp

Toe-Jam wrote: »

I have just joined. It's true their Internet banking is shockingly bad. It has had no development in years still pops up in an 800x600 box:rotfl: and doesn't even show you your actual balance unless you attempt a transfer.

Soon as i get my £100 i'll be off.

Put up with it for 6 months and they'll give you another £100 reward.

hoc

I joined a few weeks ago. The wait time, quality of the phone line and customer service to do my switch was much worse than any other bank. 20 minutes waiting, once connected constant background noise, person seemed to be multitasking doing something else, etc.

I don't care so much about phone centres, I don't use them other than when absolutely needed to, but after all the things Martin and others have said I was shocked how poor an experience it was.

They then cocked up one of my direct debits in the switch.

Everything said on the online banking and also don't forget the silly keypad thingy and mountains of paper. I said it in another similar thread recently, if not for their regular saver I would switch.

colsten

Toe-Jam wrote: »

I'm not sure about you, but I want my bank to be able to tell me how much money I have actually got to spend, not a figure from 2 days ago before I made a load of debit card payments.

Whats the point in having a "pending payments" button on your app if it doesn't actually show you any pending payments.

No bank can reliably tell you how much money you have actually got available to spend. All they can tell you is what they have been told by retailers, and not all retailers tell the bank immediately.

The 'pending payments' will show you all pending payments the bank is aware of.

The only one who can possibly know all your pending payments is the person who made the payments, i.e. yourself.

darkidoe

Why did you go to First Direct in the first place? If it is for the switching and regular saver rates, they are pretty much up there in the top of the league in the market. You don't require too much 'customer service' per year from them for that, at least I didn't. I usually self service.

andrewmp

hoc wrote: »

I joined a few weeks ago. The wait time, quality of the phone line and customer service to do my switch was much worse than any other bank. 20 minutes waiting, once connected constant background noise, person seemed to be multitasking doing something else, etc.

I don't care so much about phone centres, I don't use them other than when absolutely needed to, but after all the things Martin and others have said I was shocked how poor an experience it was.

They then cocked up one of my direct debits in the switch.

Everything said on the online banking and also don't forget the silly keypad thingy and mountains of paper. I said it in another similar thread recently, if not for their regular saver I would switch.

Same here, they messed my switch up in January due to a backlog meaning it took a week. I'm amazed people rate them so highly.

Toe-Jam

colsten wrote: »

No bank can reliably tell you how much money you have actually got available to spend. All they can tell you is what they have been told by retailers, and not all retailers tell the bank immediately.

The 'pending payments' will show you all pending payments the bank is aware of.

Yes I take your point that they can't account for every transaction, contactless being an example.

However First Direct do not show you pending payments they ARE aware of in pending payments, nor do they reflect them in the balance presented to you on the main screen or mobile app. How do I know they're aware of them ?? Well press make a payment and they can give you the correct figure on the next screen or use a cash-point.

As a developer I can say it would take 30 mins work to move this accurate balance presented on the make payment screen to the main window, but yet they haven't bothered.