Top Bank (First Direct)

Member Name: mynameisrui

Product:	First Direct
Date:	21/11/08 (180 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Great service, Speak to Real People

Disadvantages: None

After moving banks 6 months ago to the Halifax I wasn't overly happy. I had heard good things about First Direct so looked at their website. They were offering (and still are) £100 for moving your account over to them and another £100 if you decide you're not happy with them and want to leave. This got me interested...

History

First Direct is a division of HSBC and was set up back in 1989 with a headquarters in Leeds which is where it has remained since then. It was originally part of Midland Bank but when that was bought by HSBC, it obviously became part of that. Because it is part of HSBC (one of the biggest banks in the world), it gave me reassurance that my money would be safe. I know the government guarantee up to £50,000 but I'd rather not have my money anywhere where that guarantee might have to be exercised. They have no actual branches but you are able to go into any HSBC branch and do all your necessary banking through them.

Reviews

Before I decided to move there I decided to do a little bit of research on them with regards to how other people have found them. Just from looking at Dooyoo and Ciao I have found the reviews to be generally very positive but there will always be people who are unhappy with the service for whatever reason. Looking at more official statistics, GfK NOP ( a mystery shopping service) declared that First Direct had the best call centres across all the sectors it measured (retail, financial services & insurance, telecoms & utilities, public sector and entertainment, leisure & travel). I also remembered seeing on Watchdog that First Direct was the most recommended bank in the UK with 96% of its members recommending it.

1st Account

This is just their name for your bog standard bank account. This is the account which they say they will give you up to £200 for if you switch to them and then leave. They advertise the main benefits of this account as:

* Open 24/7/365
* Real people to talk to
* Interest free £250 overdraft (0% EAR, 15.9% EAR for sums over £250)
* Text message banking
* Automated sweep from 1st Account to a savings account.

So what does this all mean? The bank never closes. There is always someone to talk to all year round which means they will never leave you stranded. There is also a distinct lack of automated messages meaning that you should always speak to an actual person and not a machine. The £250 interest free overdraft is fairly standard across bank accounts. Text message banking is a useful tool where they can send you mini statements and alerts if your account reaches a specific amount. For example, you can set a text to send you a mini statement every Monday morning, or you can get it to tell you that your account has dropped below £0. You are not able to actually make transactions but this just lets you keep an eye on things. Text banking is also free. The automated sweep function is very simply a function that will move any money from one account to another automatically. For example, if on the day you get paid you want to leave £500 in your account and the rest moved to a savings account, you can set up a sweep to do this. It can be quite a handy feature.

So all this sounds good eh?! Well there are a few small catches before you can get all of this. The first is that you are required to pay at least £1,500 into your account each month in order to receive the £100. If you can't pay this much in then there is also a monthly charge of £10 for using this account. You also need to pay the £1,500 within 3 months of opening your account. If you are able to meet these criteria then they will welcome you in.

Opening the Account

I applied online for the account and within a few days was sent some forms to fill and send back using the freepost envelope provided. Over the next week I received a few bits and bobs from them and my account was soon up and running. I decided to use their 'Easy Switch' service to move accounts. The point of this service is just that they will basically do it all for you. Over the course of the next few weeks to a month, I received various letters informing me about how it was going, a list of my direct debits and so on. The only things I had to do was inform my work that my payment details had changed. Within around a month and a bit, my account was up and running with all my direct debits sorted and it all went without a problem.

Account Usage

With the account you are given a Maestro card which is accepted pretty much everywhere. You are not automatically given a cheque book or paying in book but these can be requested and are sent out very quickly. I have also had to ring them up no more than 10 times over the last few months for various reasons and have found that the longest time between the first ring and someone picking up the phone has been no more than about 30 seconds, even a peak hours. The staff seem to be very polite and friendly. They have all been able to help me do exactly what I need to without a need to transfer me round the departments. One of them even said they would call back to save me money on my phone bill and I was called very soon after.

Online Banking

I do most of my banking online and therefore needed an online facility that is easy to use and does what I need it to. Before you can log in you will need to set up a few security questions which you will need to answer every time you log in. The security is good and I have never had ay worries about its authenticity. One of my main wants was that both the cleared balance and available balance would show up on my account so I could see what was waiting to go through. Unfortunately, the main screen only shows the cleared balance. However, if you go to the 'Make a Payment' section, then your available balance is shown there. Not ideal, but it will do for me. I have also made use of the sweep and text message banking facility and both are extremely easy to set up and do exactly what they say they will do.

When I was with the Halifax, I used to get frustrated because when you send a payment, it will only actually be send the next working day meaning that the destination account is waiting much longer than normal. With First Direct, all my payments have been sent straight away and they have all taken advantage of the faster payments scheme where by the money is in the account almost instantly. At Halifax, only about 10% of my payments were sent this way.

I have also found that items that you purchase with your Debit Card clear very quickly. The best example of this is on a Sunday morning I put some petrol in and paid on my card. By Monday afternoon it had already shown up on my account balance. With other banks I normally wait around 3 days.

First Directory

This is the common service banks have where if you pay a certain amount every month you get a certain amount of extras. In this case, you pay £7.50 for the first 6 months and then £9.95 for every month after that. For that money you get worldwide travel insurance, mobile phone insurance, commission free currency, leisure benefits (discounts at restaurants and hotels) and banking benefits (exclusive member offers). To be honest all this is pretty standard and its something you get with most other paid for services offered by the banks. It is worth noting though that if you recommend a friend to First Direct, I believe that you get the first directory free for a limited time.

Other Services

As well as bank accounts, First Direct also offers mortgages, loans, credit cards, savings accounts, investments and insurance through their website. I won't go into each of these otherwise I'd be here all night!

3 Months On

It has now been almost 3 months since I first opened my First Direct account and I must say that I am very happy with it. I should be getting my £100 when my salary goes in but I think I won't be leaving to claim the other £100. That was certainly the original plan, but after the service I have received, I'm not going anywhere. I honestly can't find a single thing to complain about.

So as I'm sure you've gathered by now, I have found First Direct to be brilliant. Everything has been made easy for me and there have been no problems. Apparently you're more likely to move house than banks so if you if you do move banks, then this one certainly gets my recommendation.

Thanks For Reading

Summary: If you're moving banks, move to First Direct