As you know, if you’ve been following my posts, the issue today is the latest in a long line with FD, despite only having been a customer since 13th Jan. That’s not a good first impression. It hasn’t even been 4 weeks.
Or even Premier again. By moving investments from Vanguard, I could make myself eligible again. Although, I’d need to compare the fees. I’m certainly not going to overpay on the investment side just to gain Premier. It would also largely depend on how the new app develops - right now I’m not a fan.
Which of their investment products do you use and do they still insist on opening those uninvested cash accounts? (At least you can hide them now, I suppose).
As someone above pointed out, I’m trying to find perfection when it doesn’t exist. I accept that.
I suspect I will try out a different banking group entirely for a change.
Yes I can see that; This is the challenge with FD really, everything is a phone call setting up and resolving things. They’re a little legacy in that way.
Fair enough. You might like NatWests, it’s got a nice mix of FD simplicity and HSBC functionality. Personally I quite like the design and it’s what I’d hoped the original version of Monzo v2 would’ve looked like.
One scroll I can see totals across accounts, see the balance after bills and investments.
GIC and yes, and also yes. Thankfully but I’d got used to watching it move across the page once a month.
Perhaps you could create your own thread about what your are looking for in a bank and why others have not met your expectations (and how long you gave them)?
To be fair, I only needed to call First Direct once and that was to verify Google Pay, which was really straightforward. Never had to phone up again thankfully. I think you’ve just been a bit unlucky really with the stuff that keeps going wrong.
Noticed the travel reward card offered to me when I checked credit karma so took it. That’ll be my first foray with NatWest which will be similar to my RBS credit card experience albeit with some cashback.
May move into the current account space as well. This can be done via the app/browser extension if I remember correctly?
(Sorry probably the wrong thread for that comment)
I currently have FD, NatWest and Chase, and out of them all I’d say NatWest are the best.
The only annoyance with them is that everything in regards to applying for something is slow. Want to change your account type? Fill out the online form and it’ll be done in a few days. Open a new current account? It’ll show up in a few days once opened. Increase the overdraft level? Fill out basically an online form. Nothing is instant, but I guess that’s most legacy banks (not all).
Their app tells you what they’d likely lend you for overdrafts/loans etc after you’ve used their current account for a while as well which is nice.
I originally only had a credit card with them, I then applied for the current account in the app once logged in. Was accepted but took a few days to show in app and from what I remember they did not credit check me again.
That sounds reasonable. I’ve found that initial ‘setup’ of FD can generate the most need to call but once it’s done, it just ticks away like a reliable engine, and the need to have to speak to anyone goes away.
I’ve banked with FD for so long now and went through the phase of trying Monzo, Starling, then gravitated back to FD when the Monzo app became filled with junk. Then again tried Lloyds, RBS (jumped on the C&Co hype), then back to FD. I feel that despite the app being overly basic, FDs customer service is excellent which makes me feel like I can trust my money with them the most.
Personally, now I use both FD and Chase. FD for all the bills and grow up things, Chase for all my daily spending and sending money to friends etc. I don’t think the “perfect” bank exists, which is why I have ended up using a combination of both FD and Chase. Where FD falters, Chase does well, and vice versa. I get this is difficult if you want all your eggs in one basket.
It sounds like any small issue will be a problem for you, if this is the case you’ll be forever on the hunt for the perfect bank.
You don’t get to decide what is a “small” issue. That’s a decision that is entirely mine to make, given I’m the one experiencing the service.
The service has been exceptionally poor, that is a fact. There is no debating this and your positive experience does not negate my experience.
If anything, to respond to a negative experience with “it’s great for me” is quite diminishing and offers little to the conversation. At no point have I suggested that it’s impacting all customers.
Apart from the above, you are otherwise correct, I do need to lower my expectations and accept a certain level of poor service, as it seems to be universal across all banks these days.
This. I’m autistic and the little things can be massive barriers and cause great anxiety. For me, it’s a case of choosing a bank which will do what I want and cause the least anxiety.
However, I am also able to tell whether I’m being overly sensitive because of this or whether it’s a genuinely bad service I’m experiencing.
It’s very much the latter on this occasion.
Sadly, HSBC and FD have a number of fans on this forum. You can’t say anything bad about them without the same people popping up.
Often repeating the same thing they’ve posted a thousand times previously, just reworded.
A slightly extreme example, but if someone were to tell me that they were just mugged, I wouldn’t then tell them that I’ve not been mugged, despite walking down the same street.
It would be a pointless statement. It adds nothing, nor is it about balance. It’s actually an attempt to diminish and invalidate a negative view of something you consider to be positive.
Anyway, I appreciate all advice and this isn’t directed at any person in particular.
Had a terrible experience with FD today, sent money over to my Chase at 11pm but was not received, I called and was informed payemnts after 6pm are not instant and to call back in the morning. As I thought it had been held up for a fraud check but even after speaking on the phone it has not been released. I will have to contact them again and I’m starting to get quite irritated.
No. Banks should be able to provide their customers with good levels of customer service, and it is kinda shocking that fd, the bank all about their 24/7 CS, isn’t providing this. Have you sent off a complaint yet?
They don’t pick up the phone quite as quicky, but then again, you don’t have to call them as often.
I mean tbh that’s their problem. One can be a fan of something and still criticise stuff that they don’t get right
This was my experience. Initially everything took a bit longer to set up and a few phone calls. But once it was done everything just kind of of worked and whenever I needed to contact customer services they were super quick and super helpful… I only jumped ship over to Monzo Max for the insurances which fit my use case better than I could find else where.
I’m kind of dreading if I have any issues because Monzo customer is awful (which I have told them at every possible opportunity! )
Anarchist
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I suspect that the person you talked to was making stuff up. They may have been experiencing issues with faster payments at that time, but the standard they should be aiming for is almost instant, 24 hours a day.
If what they said is true, then I wouldn’t bank with FD.
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