We'd like to remind Forumites to please avoid political debate on the Forum... Read More »
📨 Have you signed up to the Forum's new Email Digest yet? Get a selection of trending threads sent straight to your inbox daily, weekly or monthly!
First Direct text alerts not very good?
Options

JustAnotherSaver
Posts: 6,709 Forumite


I'm hoping some of you have text alerts on with First Direct and can comment.
My brother is with FD & has a few alerts set up as his balance hits & passes certain amounts.
Basically he gets paid, this gets transferred to a savings account & then at the end of every week he (via standing order) 'pays' himself an allowance to his first direct account for that week.
He has 5 alerts in total (yes i know there'll be some reading ... 'why would you need 5' but anyway...) the lowest two of which are when he hits £15 or below and then when he hits £1 and below.
Now i was expecting a text along the lines of - you have hit your £xx.xx balance, your balance is currently £xx.xx each time he hits/passes a preset figure.
But instead he gets all sorts of babble. A list of recent transactions so he doesn't actually know what limit he's just passed at all.
Is this what others are getting with their text alerts? I just think it's a potentially good service that seems to be carried out very poorly.
My brother is with FD & has a few alerts set up as his balance hits & passes certain amounts.
Basically he gets paid, this gets transferred to a savings account & then at the end of every week he (via standing order) 'pays' himself an allowance to his first direct account for that week.
He has 5 alerts in total (yes i know there'll be some reading ... 'why would you need 5' but anyway...) the lowest two of which are when he hits £15 or below and then when he hits £1 and below.
Now i was expecting a text along the lines of - you have hit your £xx.xx balance, your balance is currently £xx.xx each time he hits/passes a preset figure.
But instead he gets all sorts of babble. A list of recent transactions so he doesn't actually know what limit he's just passed at all.
Is this what others are getting with their text alerts? I just think it's a potentially good service that seems to be carried out very poorly.
0
Comments
-
For the weekly balance reminder (I get mine every Friday) the first figure is your current balance. This is followed by a list of the last five transactions.
The balance alerts normally state balance above/below (it doesn't give the figure which it is above or below) then the current balance and the last transaction.0 -
Could it be the type of phone? I think best get in contact with them, I'm not with first, but i hear their customer service is top notch.0
-
I expect the problem with having a balance alert for going below £15 and also for going below £1 is that a single transaction could take the balance from above both limits to below both and so trigger both alerts simultaneously. Is this what appears to be happening?0
-
I think they are being merged into a single alert. For example, if I have a credit on the same day as my weekly transaction list, I don't receive my separate credit alert. Once you can read the transaction list it kinda makes sense, see the post by TheShape above.
Some of the challenger banks probably do a better job of this kind of thing.I’m a Forum Ambassador and I support the Forum Team on the Credit Cards, Savings & investments, and Budgeting & Bank Accounts boards. If you need any help on these boards, do let me know. Please note that Ambassadors are not moderators. Any posts you spot in breach of the Forum Rules should be reported via the report button, or by emailing forumteam@moneysavingexpert.com.
All views are my own and not the official line of MoneySavingExpert.0 -
You would be better off advising your brother to use an account like Monzo or Starling for his weekly budget. Every time a transaction is made on the account you get a notification of how much was spent and what the current balance is. This is also a live balance so no chance of a payment taking a few days to be debited and not knowing the true amount in the account.0
-
After i posted this we figured out what that first number was all about. It was throwing me to begin with but then i checked back here & had it confirmed.
We'll see about having only 1 alert to see if it works better. Like you say, if he dropped to £20 then this would be a trigger for 3 alerts really so maybe moving it to only 1 alert may work better.no chance of a payment taking a few days to be debited and not knowing the true amount in the account.
And then bank holidays caused an issue last year, especially Easter.0 -
If your brother runs his finances this tight surely he'd benefit from checking his balance daily rather than just relying on text alerts. It takes me all of 5 seconds (if that) to sign in, check balance and close with First Direct - hardly time consuming - could be done while brushing teeth or engaging in other bathroom activities (even shower with waterproof phones these days!).0
-
If your brother runs his finances this tight surely he'd benefit from checking his balance daily rather than just relying on text alerts. It takes me all of 5 seconds (if that) to sign in, check balance and close with First Direct - hardly time consuming - could be done while brushing teeth or engaging in other bathroom activities (even shower with waterproof phones these days!).0
This discussion has been closed.
Confirm your email address to Create Threads and Reply

Categories
- All Categories
- 351K Banking & Borrowing
- 253.1K Reduce Debt & Boost Income
- 453.6K Spending & Discounts
- 244K Work, Benefits & Business
- 599K Mortgages, Homes & Bills
- 177K Life & Family
- 257.4K Travel & Transport
- 1.5M Hobbies & Leisure
- 16.1K Discuss & Feedback
- 37.6K Read-Only Boards