Outstanding customer service (firstdirect.co.uk)

Member Name: pussycat

Product:	firstdirect.co.uk
Date:	21/09/00 (1002 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Friendly and helpful staff, telephone and Internet banking, free overdraft

Disadvantages: No student accounts

I have been using First Direct for three years despite their lack of student banking facilities purely due to the outstanding level of customer support offered by the staff.

I mean, is nothing too much trouble for these people.

Not that I'm complaining - its just that I had rather got used to indifferent service, rude staff and inflexible bureaucracy whilst using other banks.

I have to admit that I only opened a First Direct account due to the £15 offer which was running at the time as an incentive to get people to open accounts. Right from the start, I was impressed by how polite and helpful the staff seemed to be but cynical old me thought 'aha, this is all a ruse to lure me into First Direct, as soon as I am a customer you will treat me with the contempt that all banks seem to think that customers deserve'. But no, three years later and they are still friendly, efficient and helpful.

Opening the account was a matter of filling out a straightforward form. This was followed by a telephone call from First Direct so that I could set up the password and make the necessary security arrangements involved with telephone banking. I do have a minor gripe at this stage - why does the memorable date have to be this century? I wanted to use a date in 1861 (a very important year for me!) but apparently it has to be this century - the problem being that I didn't have any particularly memorable date (of course, I could now use my anniversary!) hence I have to keep it written down which rather makes a nonsense of its value as security.

Other than this, I have absolutely no complaints. I have had advice on a loan (easily arranged over the telephone in about ten minutes), high interest savings accounts, car and home insurance and mortgages and have always received unfailingly helpful advice from people who seem genuinely keen to be of assistance. The mortgage advisor was particularly helpful as I asked him to exp
lain it in basic terms and then again in very basic terms. He didn't seem to mind and made everything very simple and kept checking with me to make sure I understood (this was in direct contrast to the Abbey National who told me that I didn't need to understand how the mortgage worked because they would do the worrying for me - all very well and good but if I'm going to be in debt to someone for twenty odd years, I really would rather understand what was going on).

I did have some qualms about telephone banking as I was worried about whether this would make dealing with any problems that arose too difficult. But firstly, there haven't been any problems, and secondly, all the staff are so helpful that I feel that any problems would soon be sorted out. There is Internet banking available with First Direct but I can't comment on it because I haven't used it yet.

All in all, a great bank. All current accounts automatically have an interest free overdraft which is really helpful if, like me, you get paid every three months as money tends to be a bit tight towards the end. Equally, it only takes a telephone call to transfer some money from my savings account into my current account if the need arises.

Customer service like that provided by First Direct seems, regretfully, to be almost non-existent elsewhere. In my quest for the perfect bank, I have tried Midland (as it was), Nat West and Barclays but have never received such good customer service. I do agree that anonymous telephone banking is no substitute for the old-fashioned days of banking when all the staff in the local branch knew your name and banking seemed to be tailored to each individual's needs. However, these days are long gone and I would certainly prefer a series of polite and helpful customer service people on the telephone to the offhand and sometimes blatantly rude service I have experienced in branches of some other banks.

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