Think twice before switching to First Direct

gsmh

I tend to agree. I opened a First Direct account and switched in a little-used account to avail myself of the switching incentive. My intention was to use it as my main current account. I used it for a couple of months but wasn't impressed, to be honest. Yes, you can call and speak to someone easily, but when I did the problem always had something to do with Mastercard and First Direct couldn't help. I approached Mastercard through Twitter and was told they didn't talk to end users and they advised my to contact my bank. First Direct was distinctly average and there was nothing to keep me with them. Thankfully I hadn't closed my previous account with The Royal Bank of Scotland so I have just switched everything back to them. They have an over 60s telephone number which has been very useful and is answered quickly and I receive a net reward £3 a month. Add to that you can withdraw cash from a NatWest/RBS/Tesco ATM using your phone.

jon81uk

gsmh said:

Yes, you can call and speak to someone easily, but when I did the problem always had something to do with Mastercard and First Direct couldn't help. 

What was the problem with Mastercard? I've been using my card as chip & PIN, contactless and Apple Pay with no issues at al.

400ixl

Latest customer satisfaction surveys have FD as the top of the traditional banks, closely behind two digital challenger banks (Starling & Monzo IIRC) so it can't be that bad.

Personally been with them for many years and had next to no issues at all and very rarely have any need to visit a branch or the post office for services. The only cheques I have had to pay in I have used the app to pay in, and any cash I have used the Post Office without any issues at all.

The only time I have had to call them was when I needed to do a charge back when the rental company got things all wrong and I had to pay again on arrival. Dealt with very efficiently.

I have moved significant sums of money around and not had issues, have had the the in app challenges which have worked well, and once had a call from the fraud team (who spoke very good English (and it was out of UK hours) and were fine with me not taking their word for who they were and allowing me to call them back on their published number.

So for me I have seen one or two cases of people being unlucky and getting a bad experience where mostly they are good. Unfortunate but it happens. Some who are fringe cases of the services offered or are not willing to change their ways to fit with the way things work today. To those I would say there are other banks out there who may offer the experience you want in the way you want it, so go there.

On the whole FD are a solid bank in my experience, not for everyone (their identification systems can be a bit clunky as mentioned by others), but overall they have a reputation for good customer service which in this day and age is hard to hide if that is not the case.

I will confess that FD are no longer my primary current account, but that is only because one of the challenger bank offers more of the features I want to utilise, but I still have the FD account and would not deter anyone from using them if the account fits their needs.

To the OP, I hope your experience was a one off, if not there are other banks people will know doubt recommend.

gsmh

jon81uk said:

What was the problem with Mastercard? I've been using my card as chip & PIN, contactless and Apple Pay with no issues at al.

It coincided with the opening of my account. I was unable to authenticate any continuous credit authorities - it was not possible to change my default payment method with several online companies including Apple. The dialog box which asks for an app authentication appeared, and the in-app authentication in the FD app appeared to work, but then the merchant was unable to proceed. This went on for a few days and having someone answer the phone after a few rings sounds good, but they were clueless about the issue, and it was my digging around which made me realise it was a Mastercard problem. My card worked fine in bricks-and-mortar stores.

subjecttocontract

In their favour they do have an attractive regular saver paying 3.5%.......which often seems to get overlooked !

gsmh

subjecttocontract said:

In their favour they do have an attractive regular saver paying 3.5%.......which often seems to get overlooked !

It's a great headline rate, but what is the return in practise? these regular savers are limited in that they restrict what you can add each month.

username

400ixl said:

Latest customer satisfaction surveys have FD as the top of the traditional banks, closely behind two digital challenger banks (Starling & Monzo IIRC) so it can't be that bad.

Just bear in mind the power of statistics in generalised surveys. For the CMA survey you often see these figures quoted, they're only surveying 1000 clients per year out of a base of 1.5million. That's a pretty small sample size.

Although it's interesting to see how clients of Halifax tend to rate the internet banking higher than those at Lloyds and BOS, yet they all run off the same platform.

Yes, the regular savers have just about kept me there, although the rate the other year was appalling.

subjecttocontract

gsmh said:

subjecttocontract said:

In their favour they do have an attractive regular saver paying 3.5%.......which often seems to get overlooked !

It's a great headline rate, but what is the return in practise? these regular savers are limited in that restrict what you can add each month.

Well it's £300 pcm max for 12 months @ 3.5%. So it's better than most of the others....at the moment.

Chloe_G

I would like to switch away from FD but what happens to my regular saver if I switch?

Rich1976

Chloe_G said:

I would like to switch away from FD but what happens to my regular saver if I switch?

That would be closed as you can’t have a regular saver without a current account with them