Has anyone complained about First Direct to Ombudsman

OceanSound · 17 July 2018 at 2:45PM

Are they really that good?

I had a look on the Financial Ombudsman complaints data website.** First Direct doesn't even appear.

Searched the tables for hsbc. Up comes 'John Lewis Financial Services' and 'Marks and Spencer Financial Services'. Not a sniff of 'First Direct' or 'FirstDirect'

Am I missing something?

p.s: I've only found this one thread on here (MSE) about a first direct PPI claim that went to ombudsman back in 2010. (That's taken over two years to resolve by ombudsman service)

** - I've looked at latest data = 01 Jul to 31 Dec 2017
as well as = 01 Jan to 30 Jun 2017
and = 01 Jul to 31 Dec 2016

eskbanker · 17 July 2018 at 2:57PM

As per the footer info on the FD website, "first direct is a division of HSBC UK Bank plc", i.e. not a separately-registered legal entity, which is also why they (unlike M&S) don't appear on the official list of PRA-regulated institutions at https://www.bankofengland.co.uk/-/media/boe/files/prudential-regulation/authorisations/which-firms-does-the-pra-regulate/banks-list---june-2018.pdf

Edit: same applies to Halifax, i.e. because it's just a trading name within Bank of Scotland rather than a legal entity in its own right, it doesn't have a separate PRA authorisation and therefore isn't separated out in FOS data (other than the different sharedealing entity).

JuicyJesus · 17 July 2018 at 3:10PM

You can search the Ombudsman's decisions site for "first direct" and get plenty of results: http://www.ombudsman-decisions.org.uk

They don't get all that many complaints, they're one of the smaller players after all. But they also don't report separately from HSBC Bank plc - legally they are one and the same entity.

OceanSound · 17 July 2018 at 5:20PM

JuicyJesus wrote: »

You can search the Ombudsman's decisions site for "first direct" and get plenty of results: http://www.ombudsman-decisions.org.uk

They don't get all that many complaints, they're one of the smaller players after all. But they also don't report separately from HSBC Bank plc - legally they are one and the same entity.

Of course!. The complaint decisions on there for First Direct start with 'Mr/Ms x/y/z complains that HSBC Bank Plc (trading as first direct)...'.

One thing to note through. THe decisions published are only complaints that make it to the 'final' ombudsman stage. Any complaints settled before then wouldn't make it to that site.

Pound · 17 July 2018 at 10:50PM

If the ombudsman investigated banks that had websites that looked like they were designed in the nineties, First Direct would be right up at the top of the list.

Has anyone complained about First Direct to Ombudsman

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