iFAST Global Bank - anyone with experience of this UK regulated bank?

SparkandShine

HHUK said:

Just attempted a small trial deposit into my NSI Direct Saver account using the iFast debit card details and received this notification

 Error:Invalid debit card number
Disappointing

I have been using the ifast card for the 2% cashback so far it’s working fine, not sure of this issue but I guess this is similar to using debit card to top up? I tried to use the ifast card to top up my another Revolut account it works, though it doesn’t count the cashback as their T&Cs has excluded

HHUK

flaneurs_lobster said:

Is the card working for "normal" spend?

Strange error if it is, would expect card to work OK regardless of cashback qualification or otherwise.

Likewise. Yes has been working fine on Amazon and Ocado (with the individual and cumulative accrued cashback displayed). Out of interest I tried sending a £10 deposit to a Yorkshire BS Savings Account using the card. Approved the payment in the iFast app and initially it went through, only to be refunded immediately.

HHUK

SparkandShine said:

I tried to use the ifast card to top up my another Revolut account it works, though it doesn’t count the cashback as their T&Cs has excluded

I just tried using the iFast card to top up a different Yorkshire BS account and, after authorising the transaction in the iFast app, received this notification from the Society:

Deposit declined

Your card deposit was declined. You may not have added your details correctly or you may not have had enough money in the account.

Try again

Oh well, will have to concentrate on trying to maximise the cashback by means of 'normal' expenditure.

GreenScepter

Wish I paid attention to this thread earlier. 2% cashback, even if temporary is nothing to scoff at in my opinion. Though ironically despite having the word fast in the title, applying is taking a while. And as others have said they do ask for quite a few details, including your NI number so be sure to dig that one out. They seemed to have an issue accepting my Lloyds bank account statement as proof of address, Nationwide worked fine though, for whatever reason.

HHUK

Having had no previous issues, I find I am unable to log into iFast on my Android app today. (Galaxy A35 less than three months old).

When I try to open the app a message appears warning that my device doesn't have a PIN, pattern or password set up (of course there is a PIN) and that to continue using the app safely I need to please set up a PIN, pattern or password. Hard to do that when I can't get into the thing!

I have tried uninstalling and reinstalling the app and restarting the phone, all to no avail. The best the agent I had a chat with online (on Windows) could come up with was to change my phone PIN, which made not a scrap of difference. They said they would need to refer to another team and I agreed to continue the discussion via email. Hoping to hear from them soon, and that the matter can be resolved that way.

I wish I could post a screenshot of the warning message, but it disappears too quickly for my ancient arthritic fingers to be able to complete the necessary actions.

** UPDATE **

Have received the following email:

Dear HHUK,

Thank you for using our Live Chat service!

Please be informed that the issue you were facing while trying to log in to your account on the iFAST GB Mobile App has been resolved, and you may restart the App to log in now.

Do let us know if the issue persists for our further assistance.

Have checked and sure enough the app is now back to normal. Pleasantly surprised by how quickly this issue has been resolved

flaneurs_lobster

HHUK said:

Having had no previous issues, I find I am unable to log into iFast on my Android app today. (Galaxy A35 less than three months old).

Is the app installed in the phone's Secure Folder? Some banking apps don't play well with Samsung's security.

HHUK

flaneurs_lobster said:

Is the app installed in the phone's Secure Folder? Some banking apps don't play well with Samsung's security.

Thanks. To be honest I don't know, but it was working fine before and the issue has now been resolved. I've updated my previous post accordingly.

GreenScepter

GreenScepter said:

Wish I paid attention to this thread earlier. 2% cashback, even if temporary is nothing to scoff at in my opinion. Though ironically despite having the word fast in the title, applying is taking a while. And as others have said they do ask for quite a few details, including your NI number so be sure to dig that one out. They seemed to have an issue accepting my Lloyds bank account statement as proof of address, Nationwide worked fine though, for whatever reason.

An update on my experience. I was able to get the account opened and working sooner than I thought. Their cashback offer seems to be tracking, they have a dedicated part of the app for this, you have to wait for payments to fully clear though.

However, I've had two instances of payments being taken but not going through. One could be considered a coincidence but two, made to different companies? Hmm. One of them was a payment that was taken but didn't go through on the other end. And the other was a duplicate payment. Can't even remember the last time anything like this happend with other banks. They're showing as pending so hopefully it'll sort itself out eventually, but 11 days and still waiting isn't great.

HHUK

GreenScepter said:
An update on my experience. I was able to get the account opened and working sooner than I thought. Their cashback offer seems to be tracking, they have a dedicated part of the app for this, you have to wait for payments to fully clear though.

However, I've had two instances of payments being taken but not going through. One could be considered a coincidence but two, made to different companies? Hmm. One of them was a payment that was taken but didn't go through on the other end. And the other was a duplicate payment. Can't even remember the last time anything like this happend with other banks. They're showing as pending so hopefully it'll sort itself out eventually, but 11 days and still waiting isn't great.

The only issues I have experienced to date have been around logging in to the app - it sometimes takes several attempts to get it to accept my password. Otherwise everything has been working smoothly for me as described in your first paragraph.

Have you tried the in-app chat help facility? I used it to sort out one of my log in problems and found the agents responsive and helpful.

(For what it's worth, the only previous problems I have encountered with pre-paid debit cards were (1) when duplicate payments were taken on two separate occasions in Germany a few years ago from an EasyFX multi currency travel card, and (2) when Caxton suddenly tried to take a random sum years after I last used one of their cards. Again, the issues were resolved quickly after I raised them, but not sure they would have been had I not noticed.)

[Deleted User]

Interesting iFast quirk, paid for something with a GBP balance that was converted into another currency. Just a refund and it credited it to my the other currencies wallet not the GBP as originated. This was after having created a currency wallet for that, I just hadn't converted into it at the point of purchase