First Direct

monteithgavin

Tried to switch accounts and although it stipulates that the offer does not apply to those with a HSBC current account it also refused me although I only have an HSBC credit card opened for the 0% transfer deal. 

PRAISETHESUN

monteithgavin said:

Tried to switch accounts and although it stipulates that the offer does not apply to those with a HSBC current account it also refused me although I only have an HSBC credit card opened for the 0% transfer deal. 

Account switching and account opening are two separate processes - you obviously can't switch if you don't have an account in the first place!

If I read your post correctly, FD have chosen not to open an account for you, rather than refusing to start a switch. HSBC are known to be fairly picky with who they offer accounts to, and FD is even more so from what I recall. Not much you can really do to be honest as they are under no obligation to actually offer you an account.

Bigwheels1111

You could give them a call, my wife tried to join and was refused.

Called them and they looked into it, She made a mistake mixing monthly and yearly salary.

All sorted and account was opened.

luverlyjuberly

I tried to open an account with them tonight to switch banks  and after filling in details and photographing my Drivers Licence they displayed a message stating they had to look into (something) and would get back to me. The message wasnt very helpful and i was then taken to a log in page. Is this usual?

Nasqueron

Ping them a message on the chat, they're usually pretty good at responding and can at least give you an update

FlorayG

I switched to them recently and it went very smoothly. I had one minor glitch ( me not understanding) with the new account, customer services sorted me out in minutes.
If you call them they will explain the refusal

luverlyjuberly

Thanks for the replies. I got a text message from them on Thursday with a 0800 number to call. I spoke to them yesterday (Friday) and they needed to clarify my wage amount. They told me I would get a text message and an email with their decision. I must admit I'm a little concerned as I was told I'd hear within 3-5 working days as Wednesday is the day that the switch offer ends.

luverlyjuberly

I spoke to First Direct on Friday and gave them details they wanted (wages, etc.). Today I received a message from them asking me to phone them. I did so and they asked me the exact same questions they asked me last week.

Getting an account  with them seems like hard work compared to other banks. It seems they now need to do a credit check on me. It has been 10 days since I applied for an account.

It's starting to annoy me now and I'll be very surprised if the switch offer will be included if get an account with them.

  

Ballard

I’m off topic with the thread on this, but not with the thread title and it’s not worth starting a new one. 

I transferred some small amounts from my accounts with bookmakers to my First Direct account yesterday. These always take a few days and it’s around £50 in total so it’s not a problem at all. I’m just curious, as I had push notifications from FD for each one to tell me that money had been received, but no credit has appeared as yet. 

I can’t stress enough that this isn’t remotely a problem for me, but just thought it worthy of a mention. My assumption has always been that these are BACS credits. Perhaps the bookies send a message to the banks to check that the account is valid before sending the BACS.