First Direct

colsten

jsmith9 said:

Yes give them a go I don't think you will be disappointed. we are very lucky in this country having such a choice with bank accounts 

British/English exceptionalism at work.

username

They're alright, I've been with them for 10 years plus, very few complaints. They're pretty spot on with detecting unusual transactions which do not fit the normal pattern of usage and texting or calling to verify. Also handy that you can use the parent group's (HSBC) branches, so if you need to deposit cash/cheques/get statements you can do so.

VXman

colsten said:

jsmith9 said:

Yes give them a go I don't think you will be disappointed. we are very lucky in this country having such a choice with bank accounts 

British/English exceptionalism at work.

Difficult to comment without having lived/worked and banked in a range of countries. But as someone who lived worked and banked in Hong Kong (supposedly one of the key financial centres of the world) I'd agree about the quality and choice in UK banking on this point. Rewards on credit cards are better in Hong Kong though.

NottinghamKnight

VXman said:

colsten said:

jsmith9 said:

Yes give them a go I don't think you will be disappointed. we are very lucky in this country having such a choice with bank accounts 

British/English exceptionalism at work.

Difficult to comment without having lived/worked and banked in a range of countries. But as someone who lived worked and banked in Hong Kong (supposedly one of the key financial centres of the world) I'd agree about the quality and choice in UK banking on this point. Rewards on credit cards are better in Hong Kong though.

Yes, I worked there about twnety years ago so things may have changed. They were very much ahead in automatically having multi currency accounts but few choices in account providers, I was originally with Standard Chartered but when I changed job my new employer insisted I had to bank with HSBC (and they were a French multi national!).

TJfromBrum

The main problems with first direct - & I was with them for 29 years till last week.
They MIGHT be OK if you use their mobile banking app AND you only or mainly contact them via the phone – but ... 
1)  they've not updated their login-security setup for decades  & so they pressure all customers to use their mobile banking app,  to save a few p on replacing their Physical Secure Key (Pin-generator)  when its battery goes flat, because they've not upgraded to rechargeable & which they will prevaricate for 6 weeks about replacing (or did to me, locking me out of my accounts for 6 weeks!) – of course what they should really do instead is upgrade their system to sending a PIN-code to either your website-logged-in-page or to your phone  & then you have to input that Pin-code to whichever they didn't send it to, as is logically done by other banks & by HMRC 
2)  & this is the list of things they did to me recently, which drove me to leave them:
  a)  "restricted" ALL my accounts, giving the reason that this was because 1 account had 0p in it for 2 years (it was 18 months, but details)  AND they only gave me 10 days' notice of this, which I didn't see cos I don't login every week or even necessarily every month - they failed to tell me what the "restricting" involved nor why it was done to me, & wouldn't tell me when I asked either, any of the many times I asked
  b)  this meant that my DD to my mobile was bounced because it's from my card & my card was "blocked" as part of "restricting" all my accounts - this despite the fact that the illogical bank kept asking me to ring them!  - although they've known for years that I don't phone, only text  - my friend had to make a one-off payment to my mobile to keep it in use; I've never felt so humiliated (& I cried) 
  c)  altered my address on ALL my bank statements (I mean the latest month on all accounts)  to the bank's own address instead of my address! - this was fraud! - because they're only supposed to do that if they have a serious concern about money  laundering, which they can't possibly have had about me, & certainly not about ALL of my accounts - 
AND they also did this without telling me at all - I just saw it on my statements -
they also wrote "G/A" next to their address on my statements, so obviously I looked this up -
it's for collecting money from "inactive" accounts, to basically harvest that money for the bank ALTHOUGH MY ACCOUNTS WEREN'T INACTIVE except the 0p account.
  d)  they kept sending me to their "online chat" & including telling me to "ask for Finn" but all this did was waste literally hours of my time, because the staff at that section aren't authorised to do anything except LOOK at your accounts, NOT tell you anything, & just ask you to phone - 
& their online chat also logs you out every 10-20 mins, however often you type in a word to try to stay logged in - & this of course means logging in again, which of course means further towards flattening the battery in your non-rechargeable Physical Secure Key, which if it goes flat means that you're locked out of your accounts completely, can't even see them
  e)  so I left FD, took out all of my money from all of my accounts, before they could harvest it into their central account - & this was only possible because in the last 20 months I'd moved some of my banking back to my previous bank, so I had an "existing payee" to that other bank - new payees can't be set up when your accounts are restricted, nor can payees be altered or deleted, I found
3)  18-20 months ago, First Direct seemed to take great delight in prevaricating for 6 weeks about replacing my Physical Secure Key when it went flat, & only replaced it when one of their online-chat answerers had typed after I'd left the chat   that APPARENTLY I'd downloaded their mobile app & I'd said I could work it OK - 
gotcha! - cos then I said I've not got a mobile, whereupon they must've twigged that their little game was up & they finally sent me the replacement PSK in 2 days flat, which they should've done in the first place 6 weeks previously.
   THIS BANK IS NOT SAFE TO BANK WITH - not if you're 65 & you don't do phonecalls.  Elderly are somewhat widely targeted (not just by this bank)  as being thought of as unlikely to notice that their money's been misappropriated.  & people who can't do calls are also targeted, as being thought of as mentally !!!!!! & therefore also unlikely to notice that their money's been misappropriated nor be able to do anything about it.

Nasqueron

First Direct have always been an online bank, they offer competitive rates in part because they save money from not having branches, telephone only support and yes apps. You can't have the benefits of this account while ignoring the reasons the benefits exist in the first place. Plenty of old people do fine with smart phones, your insistence on using an old dumbphone isn't the banks fault. 

EarthBoy

TJfromBrum said:

   THIS BANK IS NOT SAFE TO BANK WITH - not if you're 65 & you don't do phonecalls.  

I'm 65 and I disagree with every word you've said.   I don't like phone calls either, but because I use the app I very rarely have to ring First Direct.  I can only remember ringing them once in the last ten years. 

Come into the 21st century and get a smartphone.   I remember the physical secure key that you mentioned, -it belongs in a museum. 

lr1277

In terms of your address, I am guessing GA stands for Gone Away. If I am correct, this happened to my brother when he emigrated to the US. He did not tell Barclays about his move. Barclays sent him letters at his known address which were returned not known at this address which led to a Gone Away notation on his account. This also meant his access to his account was frozen. 
It was a whole palaver getting it sorted out. He had to go to a branch on one of his infrequent visits back to the UK with ID for an appointment with an adviser which are tough to get. That is with a bank that has branches. He also had to show something with his last UK address. Not easy I can tell you.
is it possible you have had a letter returned not known at this address?

You say FD knows you only text. Has that been since you opened the account? I have been with FD 20+ years and I don’t remember them ever letting me contact them by text.

Edited to add: 29 years ago FD was a phone only bank as there were no apps then. Was there a website? I don’t know as it was before my time with them. I am guessing you would have had to phone them if only to open the account. Has something changed so you can’t phone either with a mobile or a landline?

UKX69

EarthBoy said:

TJfromBrum said:

   THIS BANK IS NOT SAFE TO BANK WITH - not if you're 65 & you don't do phonecalls.  

I'm 65 and I disagree with every word you've said.   I don't like phone calls either, but because I use the app I very rarely have to ring First Direct.  I can only remember ringing them once in the last ten years. 

Come into the 21st century and get a smartphone.   I remember the physical secure key that you mentioned, -it belongs in a museum. 

Slightly off subject - I’m in my 70’s, profoundly deaf and wear hearing aids, but still find it difficult to communicate even in speech in some circumstances. Like TJ, I avoid phone conversations if at all possible, but if I have to, I have discovered that my latest iPhone can be paired with my aids and this makes life a little easier when phoning and speech is certainly clearer. Still, it depends on quality of communication and any ‘thick’ accent of the person talking.

Nasqueron

lr1277 said:

In terms of your address, I am guessing GA stands for Gone Away. If I am correct, this happened to my brother when he emigrated to the US. He did not tell Barclays about his move. Barclays sent him letters at his known address which were returned not known at this address which led to a Gone Away notation on his account. This also meant his access to his account was frozen. 
It was a whole palaver getting it sorted out. He had to go to a branch on one of his infrequent visits back to the UK with ID for an appointment with an adviser which are tough to get. That is with a bank that has branches. He also had to show something with his last UK address. Not easy I can tell you.
is it possible you have had a letter returned not known at this address?

You say FD knows you only text. Has that been since you opened the account? I have been with FD 20+ years and I don’t remember them ever letting me contact them by text.

Edited to add: 29 years ago FD was a phone only bank as there were no apps then. Was there a website? I don’t know as it was before my time with them. I am guessing you would have had to phone them if only to open the account. Has something changed so you can’t phone either with a mobile or a landline?

FD was launched in 1989 yes, they started internet banking trials in mid-1997, went fully live August 2000 so they had online banking for 25 years. If google is right, their first app was on iOS in 2011 allowing payments and transfers, so 14 years...