Is the 7% First Direct Worth it?

subjecttocontract

Were you expecting them to be open on a Sunday evening ?

km1500

They are 'open' 24 hours

Bigwheels1111

I now have 9 bank accounts. I could loose all of them except First Direct.
Yes they have issues, I’ve complained to them loads of time.
They cost me near on £130 by not sending 250k to savings accounts from Friday to Monday at 5%.
On Monday they sorted it and gave me the £130 lost interest and £50 for my troubles.
No questions asked.
That is good service, they caused the issue and rectified it.

Regular Savers.
Fd 7%
YBS 7%
Skipton 7.5%
Nationwide 8%
Bye Bye 15k for a year.

subjecttocontract

Thanks, I didn't know that.
Surely it would be staffed with considerably fewer call handlers on a Sunday evening though ?

Rich1976

JudgeDekker said:

First Direct isn't the bank it once was. I'm trying to phone them, and I've been listening to the hold music for 40 minutes. I know that nothing works any more in the UK and every company can get away with rubbish service because they are all as bad. It looks like first direct are just as bad as everyone else.

Seems a bit of an extreme statement about nothing working in the Uk anymore.

I called FD last Friday at 5pm and the call was answered within 10 seconds. Can’t say I’ve had any issues with wait times on the rare occasion I have to call them.

Vortigern

JudgeDekker said:

First Direct isn't the bank it once was. I'm trying to phone them, and I've been listening to the hold music for 40 minutes. I know that nothing works any more in the UK and every company can get away with rubbish service because they are all as bad. It looks like first direct are just as bad as everyone else.

Probably a fault rather than a long queue. I'd have hung up and re-dialled.

gesdt50

JudgeDekker said:

First Direct isn't the bank it once was. I'm trying to phone them, and I've been listening to the hold music for 40 minutes. I know that nothing works any more in the UK and every company can get away with rubbish service because they are all as bad. It looks like first direct are just as bad as everyone else.

Agreed, First direct mislead giving me false information me and I proved it so however the regulator Ombudsman says that even though its the case that the money amount was not worth there time chasing them for even though concrete proof exists that they stole my money and I just havn't got the time between taking employers to tribunals so many other commitments to anything more about it.

eskbanker

gesdt50 said:
First direct mislead giving me false information me and I proved it so however the regulator Ombudsman says that even though its the case that the money amount was not worth there time chasing them for even though concrete proof exists that they stole my money and I just havn't got the time between taking employers to tribunals so many other commitments to anything more about it.

If this relates to your thread from a couple of months ago, it might be worth updating that rather than making an unsupported allegation on this one without all the background?

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6459454/first-1st-direct-7-account-misleading

gt94sss2

JudgeDekker said:

First Direct isn't the bank it once was. I'm trying to phone them, and I've been listening to the hold music for 40 minutes. I know that nothing works any more in the UK and every company can get away with rubbish service because they are all as bad. It looks like first direct are just as bad as everyone else.

First Direct had planned maintenance on the weekend. It's quite rare they do it and they emailed their customers to tell them in advance.

I imagine that's related to why you faced being on hold who is unusual with FD 

adindas

JudgeDekker said:

First Direct isn't the bank it once was. I'm trying to phone them, and I've been listening to the hold music for 40 minutes. I know that nothing works any more in the UK and every company can get away with rubbish service because they are all as bad. It looks like first direct are just as bad as everyone else.

I share this experience dealing with FD and HSBC. To me it is a very simple problem, I just wanted to redirect my DD to clear to pay the CC balance, it took more than thirty minutes on the phone.

By the end of the day they even could not  resolve it and offered to send the hardcopy and the form to complete it and sent it back using a snail mail. When they sent the DD form, they did not even include the free postage.

With other banks you could easily change the bank account where you want the DD to be taken from by yourself.