Goodbye-E, Goodbye-E!! (first-e.com)

Member Name: Blurbubble

Product:	first-e.com
Date:	25/09/01 (149 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Convenient online banking - but?

Disadvantages: About to die!

Hmmm, First-e internet bank - was it doomed from the start?

Based in France and offering a current account (without cheque guarantee card, debit card or credit facilities) and savings accounts to those in the UK, with little or no offline support/branches available.

I joined them about a year ago but never used them as my main account due to their apparent incompetence and difficulty in using the account from the word go. It took ages to open the account properly, transactions seemed to take over a week to go through, interest was minimal and there was no facility for paying in cheques. Doesn't bode well really? I stopped using them very quickly.

I can only gather many people had the same experience and decided to do the same as we are now on the cusp of waving goodbye to Frist-e as we know it. They are currently in the process of contacting all their customers explaining that online banking facilities are no longer available with them and are encouraging people to transfer their First-e accounts to "SelfTrade Investments".

Well, this is no good to me as this does not operate current accounts as such but more long-term investment accounts for those with a large amount of cash - hardly appropriate for the average current account customer I guess? So, luckily, as I hardly used the account anyway and have other main banking facilities, I'm not greatly effected. However, no doubt there will be people who did use this as a main account and will be left dangling on a string or forced to take up something they did not want.

So what of the future of internet banking as a whole? First-e were one the first sole online banks and they are all but dead. I get the feeling any other accounts operated in the same manner by other organisations may soon go the same way unless they are connected to a "traditional" bank or offer offline facilities aswell.

Beware!

Summary: