New First Direct Debit Mastercard arrived today :)

MalMonroe

And this thread started off so nicely, way back in May. The OP was so pleased to receive his new card and now look - it's all degenerated into a critical debate.   

MalMonroe

Zharko123 said:

I can't comment on the paying in issue since I don't do it. But people who don't know the difference betwen degraded and degrading really shouldn't be allowed to use forums.

For me the problem is all about the new card style. Whenever I look at it I look around for the slot to put it in to turn the lights on, because it's obvioulsy a Travelodge room card. It's ugly, and cheap-looking. And it goes against all marketing best practice, which is that the customer should feel happy and satisfied using any product or service from the brand. When I look at this new card I want to cut it into bits and change banks, but my fear is that they will all start doing the same.

FD described the change as being required because the embossing on the old cards got rubbed away. So in that case print it, rather than emboss it. If you're worried about the information being rubbed, then have the information on both sides. Look at a recent NatWest card, it's perfect. Crisp white text printed on the front that will be readable for years. FD have basically taken a concept that has worked for years (information on the front of the card) and ruined it. And don't blame Mastercard. If FD had insisted on front side information then MC would have done it. 

Everone can use forums. Especially this forum. You can't even spell 'between' properly when you are in the process of criticising someone else, so does that mean you should you be excluded too?

You missed the point of the original post. The OP was happy to receive his new card. And then suddenly everything went haywire. 

This forum is supposed to be (and I quote directly from the rules here) - "a space to share, discuss and hopefully inform and improve your financial wellbeing and while we encourage discussion and debate, we value this Forum as being friendly and safe above all else."
  
So just think on. 

jbrassy

Zharko123 said:

I can't comment on the paying in issue since I don't do it. But people who don't know the difference betwen degraded and degrading really shouldn't be allowed to use forums.

For me the problem is all about the new card style. Whenever I look at it I look around for the slot to put it in to turn the lights on, because it's obvioulsy a Travelodge room card. It's ugly, and cheap-looking. And it goes against all marketing best practice, which is that the customer should feel happy and satisfied using any product or service from the brand. When I look at this new card I want to cut it into bits and change banks, but my fear is that they will all start doing the same.

FD described the change as being required because the embossing on the old cards got rubbed away. So in that case print it, rather than emboss it. If you're worried about the information being rubbed, then have the information on both sides. Look at a recent NatWest card, it's perfect. Crisp white text printed on the front that will be readable for years. FD have basically taken a concept that has worked for years (information on the front of the card) and ruined it. And don't blame Mastercard. If FD had insisted on front side information then MC would have done it. 

Thanks for your comment on one of my earlier comments. Can I also propose that those people who don't know how to use spell check should also not be allowed to use forums ("betwen", "obvioulsy").

Grammar aside, I've been told that a lot of banks are printing sensitive details on the back of cards to help prevent fraud. Apparently some fraudsters like to install cameras above ATMs so they look down and see all your card details as you put the card in. Could be a load of nonsense, but seems logical. 

To be honest, I really don't care that much about card designs. There are bigger concerns when it comes to banking, like fraud prevention, customer service, and the offers that come with the account (e.g. £250 interest-free overdraft). 

[Deleted User]

As a side note, the main brand HSBC UK is launching card with similar functionality this year.

It will be interesting to see if they work fully in branch at launch as they appear be remaining Visa Debit.

WillPS

Deleted User said:

As a side note, the main brand HSBC UK is launching card with similar functionality this year.

It will be interesting to see if they work fully in branch at launch as they appear be remaining Visa Debit.

Of course they will continue to work fully in branch. The machine doesn't care whether the card has embossed numbers, or a notch, or whether it's portrait or landscape. It reads the information from the chip which will contain exactly the same structured data that their current cards have, and ascertain from them that the card is an HSBC one.

The software must only check for that data if it detects first of all that it is a Visa Debit card which has been inserted. Either that or the data is structured differently on a Mastercard. Either way the process for updating their branch cash machine network must not be trivial otherwise they'd have done it.

jel1957

I was interested to spot this thread. The inability to pay in cash / cheques at my local HSBC branch using the new First Direct debit card is an issue for me although I accept that for the majority of people these days it is not a problem. There is a work around (helpfully demonstrated by my local HSBC) whereby you can enter the account number and sort code into the ATM although it is a bit of a faff. First Direct is being a bit disingenous by referring to this as a "temporary" issue. It has been going on now for at least 6 months and First Direct tell me that there is currently still no fix date. OK, not the biggest deal in the world but we should not expect customer experience to take a step back when something new is introduced - a point that First Direct readily accept and have been apologising to affected customers (which I acknowledge is probably a small number but of course not of great comfort if you happen to be one of that small number). The problem, I am told, is caused by an incompatibility between Mastercard (which First Direct has now switched to for their debit cards) and the HSBC ATM software but First Direct maintain that the switch to Mastercard enables to them to carry out improvements to their own digital processing.