First Direct Current Account Switch Blagged Deal

meer53

letthew00kiewin wrote: »

Before you consider switching to First Direct please consider my cautionary tale.

Impressed by the much touted "excellent customer service" and incentivized by the switching reward, I decided to make the switch from Santander to First Direct.

Some weeks after switching I was surprised to receive a letter from a finance company with which I had 0% deal for a sofa that I had recently purchased. They informed me that I had missed a payment and that I needed to contact them urgently to bring my account up to date and also that I had to pay a fee for late payment.

I contacted the company concerned to advise that I had recently changed bank accounts and had understood that all receiving parties had been provided with my new details under the switching guarantee.

After many hours waiting for a reply and on hold, the company confirmed that they did not have my new bank details. I provided the same and made the payment. I also managed to persuade them to waive the fee (although this took several subsequent calls and many many hours on the phone to them).

Naturally I contacted First Direct who assured me that this was not their fault and that everything that they should have done at their end had been done. I explained that my concerns were that:

1. That did not appear to be the case
2. I was unsure as to whether the missed payment breached the finance agreement and whether the 0% terms would continue
3. I had been advised this might affect my credit file
4. I had already had to spend many hours trying to rectify this when I had been promised that the switch would be "hassle-free"

First Direct agreed to investigate. Unfortunately, this involved many further hours of telephone calls with them including being on hold for very long periods of time with both them and the finance company.

To be fair to the finance company they carried out intensive investigations at their end and maintained that they had not been informed of the switch.

After several days and in the region of 5 or 6 hours of telephone calls, eventually I spoke to somebody at First Direct who confirmed that from the outset I should have been advised that this was First Direct's fault.

I was offered a bottle of wine and ultimately £200 in resolution of my complaint. Whilst this was a nice gesture, I asked them to resolve matters with the finance company so that I could sleep at night knowing that the 0% deal and that my credit rating was not affected.

I sorted the former out myself and eventually managed to set up an arrangement between the finance company and First Direct where they could correspond with each other directly about my credit status. I am still awaiting confirmation about this which continues to cause me sleepless nights.

When I pointed out that I had spent in the region of 5/6 hours of time that I should have been working in the office and £200 was inadequate I was told that this was more than they would normally offer and I should just be grateful.

I pointed out that what had happened was a breach of contract. They had promised a hassle free service and they had to concede this is not what I had got. As a result of the breach I had sustained loss not adequately compensated by £200 and a bottle of wine.

I was left with no option other than to write to the legal department. Rather than receive a response from the legal department, I received a further call from First Direct's customer service team who insisted that my complaint had been dealt with. I explained that I had still not received confirmation that my credit file was not affected but in any event, my email to the legal team was about my loss - not customer service. I was advised that the legal team is not "customer-facing" and would not respond to me. If I wanted to take the matter further I would have to issue proceedings at Court!!

I felt I had to complain further about this response and the attitude of the customer service representative that I dealt with. I am still awaiting a response to this second complaint.

I eventually heard from the legal team that said First Direct had not been in breach, I should be happy with what I was given in compensation and the whole affair had been dealt with with "minimal inconvenience" to me!!

I would not want to put people off from switching banks as undoubtedly there are often great benefits to doing so. Just bear in mind that things aren't always straightforward and when things do go wrong, rather than it being "hassle-free" you could be in for a whole deal of pain and lost money which you will not get back unless you take the bank to Court.

When a switch completes, all existing direct debit beneficiaries are notified electronically of the new account details. Some beneficiaries do not take action when they receive this information and do not update their records. It's always advisable when doing a switch to monitor all direct debits and other regular payments for the first month to make sure that they are paid. It's not the fault of the new bank if companies don't act on the information they are given.

ormolu

@Sally - the switch deal changed last Monday, I think. They told me over the phone that even though my switch date was after it changed, I'd still get the cash, and I did - maybe worth phoning them up to confirm?

letthew00kiewin

First Direct accepted that they were at fault but thank you for your contribution.

actd

I have considered switching my account to FD in the past - MSE always state that they get the best feedback for customer services, but I do virtually all my banking via my phone using Nationwide's app, which is excellent, and looking at the feedback for FD's app, it never seems to score well (starting with no fingerprint recognition to log in). I'd love to switch to FD, well in future anyway if they bring back the cash incentive, but if the app feedback is correct, that's the main bar to me doing so. Seems a little odd that a bank that is entirely online should have such poor rating on their app.

Unless, of course, anyone of their customers on here can tell me otherwise

knack92

meer53 wrote: »

When a switch completes, all existing direct debit beneficiaries are notified electronically of the new account details. Some beneficiaries do not take action when they receive this information and do not update their records. It's always advisable when doing a switch to monitor all direct debits and other regular payments for the first month to make sure that they are paid. It's not the fault of the new bank if companies don't act on the information they are given.

Bacs should be redirecting direct debits though as part of the switch service.

ormolu wrote: »

@Sally - the switch deal changed last Monday, I think. They told me over the phone that even though my switch date was after it changed, I'd still get the cash, and I did - maybe worth phoning them up to confirm?

I’ve been told the same - specifically to switch and deposit £1000 within 3 months of opening. Good to hear you got it no problem.

meer53

knack92 wrote: »

Bacs should be redirecting direct debits though as part of the switch service.



I’ve been told the same - specifically to switch and deposit £1000 within 3 months of opening. Good to hear you got it no problem.

Bacs will redirect debits and credits but if beneficiaries don't update their records with the new account details to claim the dd's, they won't be paid.

OceanSound

meer53 wrote: »

When a switch completes, all existing direct debit beneficiaries are notified electronically of the new account details. Some beneficiaries do not take action when they receive this information and do not update their records. It's always advisable when doing a switch to monitor all direct debits and other regular payments for the first month to make sure that they are paid. It's not the fault of the new bank if companies don't act on the information they are given.

meer53 wrote: »

Bacs will redirect debits and credits but if beneficiaries don't update their records with the new account details to claim the dd's, they won't be paid.

According to this very own website, the direct debits (DDs) and standing orders(SOs) are redirected for 13 months. So, you'd think that even if a company don't update the record (to the new bank details) immediately, a DDs would go through right up to the 13th month (after switching). If the details remain not-updated after the 13th month, presumably, the DD would be returned unpaid by the old bank.

Here's the relevant bit from link above:

I've switched. Do I need to set up my direct debits or standing orders?

No. As explained above, your direct debits and standing orders will be transferred over for you on the seventh working day and redirected for 13 months.

The person or organisation trying to debit your old account will be notified of the new account information so they can update their records and ensure subsequent payments go straight to the new account rather than the old one.

Still, best to keep an eye on it straight after the switch and contact new bank/company if DD hasn't gone through, I would have thought.

eskbanker

OceanSound wrote: »

According to this very own website, the direct debits (DDs) and standing orders(SOs) are redirected for 13 months. So, you'd think that even if a company don't update the record (to the new bank details) immediately, a DDs would go through right up to the 13th month (after switching). If the details remain not-updated after the 13th month, presumably, the DD would be returned unpaid by the old bank.

Re 13 months, the article you quote is an old one from nearly five years ago when the Current Account Switch Service was first launched.

The 13 months was extended to 36 months, in 2015 I believe, so is the current situation according to: https://www.bacs.co.uk/Services/accountswitchingservice/pages/accountswitchingservice.aspx

and according to last year's MSE article this was potentially extending further: https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/news/banking/2017/01/redirection-period-for-payments-to-old-bank-accounts-to-be-extended-

Larry699

Just switched from an old Barclays account to FD thanks to this site.
Had to ring customer services to activate and the lady was amazingly helpful, set me up for online, telephone and app as well as the linked savings account.
All very easy, she even asked if I!!!8217;d applied via this site and confirmed I!!!8217;d receive £125 reward and not the £100 you get directly !!!55357;!!!56397;!!!55356;!!!57339;
Fingers crossed that all future dealings will be as fantastic a service.

Only down side was the huge amount of security questions you need to provide and remember.

Love this site, saved me a fortune on energy through the club and been a godsend with banking.
I was always too lazy and nervous to do switches until I joined here.

OceanSound

eskbanker wrote: »

Re 13 months, the article you quote is an old one from nearly five years ago when the Current Account Switch Service was first launched.

The 13 months was extended to 36 months, in 2015 I believe, so is the current situation according to: https://www.bacs.co.uk/Services/accountswitchingservice/pages/accountswitchingservice.aspx

and according to last year's MSE article this was potentially extending further: https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/news/banking/2017/01/redirection-period-for-payments-to-old-bank-accounts-to-be-extended-

aha!. I remember when opening the First direct account, I called customer services and after setting-up security questions etc, happen to ask what would happen if I received a payment to my old bank account. The female support agent said it will be redirected. I asked how long for, she said 'indefinitely' (forever).

Looking at the links you posted, and the 14 page current account switch guarantee FD sent through the post. Seems that's only partly true. Indefinitely, in that if a payment were to arrive within 13 months leading up to the 3 year redirection period, FD will automatically extend the redirection. Presumably for another 3 years? (until there is a gap of 13 months when no DDs, BACS direct credits or faster payments have taken place through the redirection service).

The FD switch guarantee document then says 'consequently, payments made with intervals of more than 13 months will be disregarded'.

As for customer service with FD. Pretty good, apart from the minor oversight above. The other one was, when I called to give my starling bank account details for the switch, the FD staff member checked and said starling did not participate in the switch scheme. He was clearly looking in the wrong place. I sorta had to guide him to the current account switch website and tell him they are listed on there.

Re. 'last year's MSE article', wouldn't it be sensible to have a link from the 2013 article I quoted to the new one. Perhaps, a warning like 'this article has been superseded by [then link to new article]. The reason being that, when I searched google for 'current account switch direct debits were not transferred' the only links from this website that came up in the first two pages (of hits) were from 2013.