First Direct withdraws Current Account

Organist

With all of the hype that normally surrounds First Direct I'm surprised that hasn't been any comments or notification, on the forum, that they have withdrawn access to their current account for new customers. This is said to be only temporary during the coronavirus problem so they can concentrate on serving existing customers.   

SnowTiger

I hadn't noticed.

When I opened my First Direct account last year I had to phone them to finalise the process.  I think they like to talk to all new customers.  I guess they don't have staff available to do this at the moment; and they're probably receiving more calls from existing customers than usual.

Highland76

"The coronavirus is effecting everyone's lives and we want to make sure we are doing all we can to support our customers and our people."

"This means we need to focus our attention on our existing customers and their immediate financial needs. To make sure our people are able to do this, we have taken the decision to withdraw first direct current accounts to new customers."

"We hope this will only be a temporary measure so please keep checking back here for updates."

https://www1.firstdirect.com/banking/current-account/

Given the current circumstances, hardly a surprising decision. 

billy2shots

They still owe me £100 for switching 35 working days ago. 

A human was going to manually do it last Monday but due to things ‘kicking off ‘ He hasn’t had time or is off sick?

I’m in two minds. Leave it until things quiet down or call and ask where my £100 is.

i understand people are busy and completely get priorities but for some context I work in health care, am completely swamped looking after 16 very vulnerable people, trying to source PPE and making 6-7 shopping trips a week trying to get enough food for 16. 2-3 items from a shop is killing me meaning I have to queue in line for ages at multiple shops.  Add in all the extra paperwork I’m expected to complete before I even start my day to day job. 

Part of me feels that if i can do my job in these difficult times, why can’t they. That £100 would be useful to me at the moment. 

eskbanker

Organist said:

With all of the hype that normally surrounds First Direct I'm surprised that hasn't been any comments or notification, on the forum, that they have withdrawn access to their current account for new customers. This is said to be only temporary during the coronavirus problem so they can concentrate on serving existing customers.   

There was some passing reference in another thread a few days ago:

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/76978161#Comment_76978161

Thrugelmir

billy2shots said:

Part of me feels that if i can do my job in these difficult times, why can’t they. That £100 would be useful to me at the moment. 

Perhaps like you they have more immediate priorities. Helping those that mortgage holidays, loan deferments etc as have no income now. 

billy2shots

Thrugelmir said:

billy2shots said:

Part of me feels that if i can do my job in these difficult times, why can’t they. That £100 would be useful to me at the moment. 

Perhaps like you they have more immediate priorities. Helping those that mortgage holidays, loan deferments etc as have no income now. 

 I would agree with you if we were further along than we are. 

FD failed to automatically pay me the £100. They were then going to do it ‘Manually ‘ last Monday. By Monday we had only just been encouraged to stay home , pubs, cafes, restaurants, parks were still not officially closed. I’m not sure how many people would have been needing mortgage holidays a couple of days into this. A few weeks in then I can see the banks becoming very busy but a week ago?

callum9999

billy2shots said:

Thrugelmir said:

billy2shots said:

Part of me feels that if i can do my job in these difficult times, why can’t they. That £100 would be useful to me at the moment. 

Perhaps like you they have more immediate priorities. Helping those that mortgage holidays, loan deferments etc as have no income now. 

 I would agree with you if we were further along than we are. 

FD failed to automatically pay me the £100. They were then going to do it ‘Manually ‘ last Monday. By Monday we had only just been encouraged to stay home , pubs, cafes, restaurants, parks were still not officially closed. I’m not sure how many people would have been needing mortgage holidays a couple of days into this. A few weeks in then I can see the banks becoming very busy but a week ago?

Why are you making this so complicated and trying to compare your workloads when you are not doing remotely similar work?

If you need the £100 now then call and ask for it. If you don't, wait.

JustAnotherSaver

billy2shots said:

Part of me feels that if i can do my job in these difficult times, why can’t they. That £100 would be useful to me at the moment. 

If everyone hung around for the next man who was worse off then only 1 man would ever get anything done.

Like when people have a legit grumble but then people turn on the person saying there's people dying out there (not just corona, this has been said year after year way before this corona thing) and you're grumbling. Sure there's always going to be someone worse off but doesn't mean stuff can't bother you.

So if you want an update on the £100 call them, if you're not that bothered then don't.

Thrugelmir

billy2shots said:

Thrugelmir said:

billy2shots said:

Part of me feels that if i can do my job in these difficult times, why can’t they. That £100 would be useful to me at the moment. 

Perhaps like you they have more immediate priorities. Helping those that mortgage holidays, loan deferments etc as have no income now. 

 I would agree with you if we were further along than we are. 

FD failed to automatically pay me the £100. They were then going to do it ‘Manually ‘ last Monday. By Monday we had only just been encouraged to stay home , pubs, cafes, restaurants, parks were still not officially closed. I’m not sure how many people would have been needing mortgage holidays a couple of days into this. A few weeks in then I can see the banks becoming very busy but a week ago?

Schools were closed last week. People are also self isolating. Staff numbers will be down. Tasks will be prioritised. Just like in hospital. Some patients don't require immediate treatment in A&E. As not life threatening.