First Direct Banking - A smooth transition (First Direct)

Member Name: dove3066

Product:	First Direct
Date:	23/01/09 (48 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Seamless transition, good customer service, full control over your accounts

Disadvantages: Need to have enough funds to cover the change over period

We had been banking with HSBC for years - I think probably because it was one of the first banks to suspend charging - so this must be at least 25 years ago , and really didn't feel the need to change.

However one of the conditions of our mortgage was that we had to take the bank account. We didn't need to switch everything over , but it seemed silly if this would help reduce our mortgage not to do it. So we signed the forms to switch.

It was very simple and most of the work was done by First direct. They arranged for all of the direct debits to be switched over. The only bit that you have to do yourself is to contact anyone who pays into your old account and make sure that they now pay into the new account, but they send you the forms that you can give into your employer and they will change their records.

We did have to make sure that during the changeover period that there was sufficient funds in both accounts to ensure reagrdless of which account the direct debit came out of it woud be covered.

The customer care lines have been good whenever I have had a query and you have the online option or telephone option for keeping your accounts in order

Summary: Good customer service and fairly transparent change over