HSBC vs first direct

scaredofdebt

ccdorset wrote: »

Thanks again for your replies.

It is a difficult one, as it is all down to personal preference I guess. The only thing holding me back with first direct is whether I will find the online/mobile banking outdated now, but again I guess that is down to opinion and a lot of people find it still meets their needs.

I have been in touch with first direct several times over the past few days with mortgage queries and they have been very helpful.

I think my mind is made up, I'll give first direct another go and see how I get on.

Not sure how you'd find online/mobile banking outdated, it's not like you're writing to them.

It has all the features that I've ever needed and is more secure than most other online banking systems, perhaps the black and white look is a bit old fashioned if you don't like monochrome.

sausage_time

Does the Android HSBC App support fingerprint login?

SlovakianGuy

ccdorset wrote: »

I'm looking to settle with a bank now to keep things stable, as I'm looking to remortgage later in the year.

Do you only have one bank? If you have multiple current accounts in multiple banks, you can keep 1 or 2 account to keep things stable, while switch the others to get bonuses. That's what I've been doing.

Anyway, I would recommend at least 2 bank accounts to everyone. If one bank has problems (such as TSB last year), or if your account is blocked for any reason, you still have another one.

I personally would choose some ethical bank to keep "forever". The most ethical is Triodos, however it comes with £3 monthly fee. Others that are for free include Co-op, Nationwide, Starling, Monzo, Metro.
Not sure about Handelsbanken as it is a decentralised bank and almost all decisions are made by your local branch manager, including your mortgage, loans, etc., so I suppose everything is personalised and tied specifically to you. I've heard someone has a bank account with them for free, while someone else was paying £50 a month? Can't say if this is true, I've just read it somewhere. When I asked them about this, they said I need to visit my local branch and speak to its manager.

SlovakianGuy

scaredofdebt wrote: »

Not sure how you'd find online/mobile banking outdated, it's not like you're writing to them.

It has all the features that I've ever needed and is more secure than most other online banking systems, perhaps the black and white look is a bit old fashioned if you don't like monochrome.

In my opinion, most UK banks DO NOT have all the features I need or like. I only realised that when I opened Starling and Monzo. It looked like they are both at least 10 years ahead of classic banks. The only major drawback to me is, that they are both app-only, which means, you are limited to smarphones and can't manage anything on a normal computer or laptop.

So what is the difference? For example, both are visually appealing. Both show you small icons next to each payment. If you buy something in Lidl, you see small Lidl logo, if you pay for parking, you see your city council's logo, etc.
With Starling, when you're sending money, you can see your remaining balance changing as you are typing in the amount you're going to send. For example, your balance is £350 and you're going to send £50 somewhere. As you type "5", your balance immediately shows as £345 and as you type the whole "50", it shows £300. That's what your remaining balance will be after you click the Send button. This is really nice.
Monzo shows you all details of the person who just sent you money. You can see sort code and account number and next to that bank details you have a button "Send money" so you don't have to type those details anywhere if you want to send money back, just click on Send. You also see History with that person, how many payments they sent to you in total. Click on it and you see them all.


Of course, you can see payment references below all payments without the need of clicking on the payment to see more details. That's really nice.



Both Monzo and Starling show you not just a date but also the time of the payment. This is not something very important, but why not to have it if you can? Sometimes I'd like to know when exactly I sent some money somewhere, or when someone sent it to me. It can be useful if you know what time exactly it was when you made payment somewhere.


You can hear and see payments instantly when you receive or send any money. My Tesco bank account always takes at least 5 minutes until they show anything. And I still need to open the app and check it manually.



Also, instant freezing and unfreezing your debit card is great! If you lose it, or just not sure where it is, just open the app and click "Freeze". When you freeze it in Monzo, a new button shows up "Order a replacement card" or something like that. When you unfreeze the card, the Order button disappears and you card is functional in a second.


It's many smaller or bigger thins that make it so amazing. I can't even recall everything, but when I saw it for the first time I was really impressed.
Most people don't realise how horrible their online banking is. For example, my Nationwide doesn't show any payment references. That's unbelievable. But otherwise their online banking is relatively good. Most people just say "It works fine" or "I'm OK with it" so there is no real pressure on banks to improve it.

aj23_2

Monzo and Starling being App only I think is a huge drawback and isn't forward thinking at all. People are getting bored of all app stuff. It's novelty. It can also go wrong, and if access is only on app, no computer or branch, then that could be a serious issue.

It's also not forward thinking when you have a problem and all you want to do is speak to a physical person face to face to solve it.

JuicyJesus

aj23 wrote: »

Monzo and Starling being App only I think is a huge drawback and isn't forward thinking at all. People are getting bored of all app stuff. It's novelty.

Not really. Most things are going that way and the "novelty", assuming it is such, has been around and steadily getting more popular for over ten years.

It can also go wrong, and if access is only on app, no computer or branch, then that could be a serious issue.

Starling and Monzo both have telephone support, Monzo in particular has some limited access through a computer. Realistically if your high street bank's computer systems go down then your bank not being app-based doesn't do you much more harm compared to, say, when RBS' systems do.

It's also not forward thinking when you have a problem and all you want to do is speak to a physical person face to face to solve it.

If you don't want that then don't go for an app-based bank then. The choice is yours.

aj23_2

Not really. App based is a tiny, tiny section of the market. You can do exactly the same things with high street banks who have apps and online.

I haven't gone for it. I'm just saying that there are also big risks with app banking. Like with anything, but even more so when you access options are so limited.

Butch_Dingle

JuicyJesus wrote: »

Starling and Monzo both have telephone support,

Based on my own experience, Starling's phone support is only available during the quiet day time hours. If you try to call them during the busy evening period, they'll ask you to leave a message or try again later on :rotfl: They don't even bother replying to chat messages during busy times. They're ok as a backup bank or for overseas spending but no way on earth would I use them as my main bank.

SlovakianGuy

They both advertise it is something cool "Your app-only bank!" but the fact is, they offer less than other banks which also have their own mobile apps.



Like I said, both apps are great, but I really miss classic online banking. If it looked the same as those app, but on a huge screen with precise controls (mouse cursor instead of finger) that would be awesome.

SlovakianGuy

JuicyJesus wrote: »

Not really. Most things are going that way and the "novelty", assuming it is such, has been around and steadily getting more popular for over ten years.

Not sure about "getting more popular". People are getting tired of all the apps. Every sane person realises that it's not good to have absolutely everything in just one device. Even locking/unlocking your car with mobile app, as some car makes want to do. !!!!!!...

JuicyJesus wrote: »

Starling and Monzo both have telephone support, Monzo in particular has some limited access through a computer. Realistically if your high street bank's computer systems go down then your bank not being app-based doesn't do you much more harm compared to, say, when RBS' systems do.

From real life: I can't use smartphone at my work, we don't even have a good signal there, so I leave my phone in my car. But we have normal PCs at work which I can use during my break. Once I wanted to send money to my colleague, but oooops I can't do anything on computer. My bank is app-only.
If you don't have your own phone with you, you can do nothing. With normal bank, you need ANY computer with internet and you can log in to your account whenever and wherever. That was when I realised how lame is anything that is app-only.