Well I’m day three into attempting to reopen an account with FD. (What can I say, I like the UI 
)
Attempted to do it via app but this apparently doesn’t work if you had an account previously.
So I rang. Apparently I can wait for the online form (same as the mobile form I submitted) to be picked up by their team and they’ll check in or they can post out forms.
Will update.
Rang for an update…
They’re working through a backlog apparently, around two weeks before they’ll get around to mine, and I just have to wait. 
I’m not fully sure I can be bothered currently 
What’s the harm in waiting?
None, I’m fine with that.
Just amuses me that there’s such a backlog, I guess the £175 (which I am sadly ineligible for) has tempted quite a few people over. Perhaps it’ll re-invigorate the “challenger” side to it?
It’s only tempted over people who want a free £175. Anyone who wants to properly bank with first direct will already be doing so.
These offers, in my opinion, don’t entice people to actually change their banking provider.
Yes, which is my point 
In that were a switch offer not on, I doubt there would be as much of a backlog.
I had to reset my phone and of course forgot to ‘deactivate’ my secure key before I did. God I’d forgotten how much of a chore this was. Glad I switched for most things non-mortgage related, for contrast I got back into starling no issues with their video verification setup.
I also miss when you used to be able to phone FD and not spend 10+ minutes on hold before speaking to someone…
Yes, this has surprised me as well actually. For a bank whose USP has been téléphone banking it’s surprising.
That said the times I’ve rung recently it’s been quite good when you do speak to someone.
Also, the “Yorkshire” call centre is an awful lot better than the outsourced one you sometimes get when their busy.
Never waited long, probably less than a minute, each time I had to call.
They did post on their twitter about inbound being increased as everyone’s in a panic over their mortgages.
Yeah the digital secure key thing is a pain if you don’t reset it properly. Their setup with that key also means I can’t stay logged in to the app on my phone and iPad, unlike other banking apps that remembers logins across both.
I’ve only had a few times where I’ve had to wait 5 minutes or so on the phone though, usually it’s only a few rings. One time they answered so quickly I hadn’t even held the phone up to my ear yet and there was someone saying hello, which was very confusing.
HSBC now let you authorise more than one device to be a Digitial Secure Key with full access to the app - so the same upgrade will probably come to First Direct eventually!
I can’t comment on phone support quality as I have only used it as part of account setup, really.
They always used to just have the two in-house call centres - Leeds and Hamilton, but when their waiting times really deterioted during Covid they started using one in Salford as well. Leeds is FD’s Head Office and Hamilton is a shared call centre with HSBC.
I believe Salford is the outsourced call centre, run by a company called Concentrix. It was already used by HSBC, but since Covid FD calls were also diverted there.
I agree, in my experience the Leeds staff have always been the friendliest.
That might explain it I guess. Unfortunately I had to give up after 15 minutes on hold. Will try again tomorrow.
That explains a lot.
I will say that I did get to the Leeds call centre today and they were super helpful.
So far the phone service has still been excellent, so quite looking forward to them giving me a bell to get things setup.
While I’m waiting for them to get around to me I found this
I remember this initially being show via HSBC customer studio, but as I can see (I dont have a current account with them) it never got rolled out, as yet.
Looks like FD did something sooner than HSBC, which I think has to be a first?
I know they’re all the same group, but the parity between the two sides is quite large
Hardly innovative. So much for challenger bank.
They were gushing over 1mil customers using the app recently, so maybe they are going to try and take on the rest over time.
Wow. A whole million users. They’ve reached the same number of people who were using the HSBC app in 2013, when all it did was show three month’s worth of transactions.
I will say that it does seem to have the best UI, which is a subjective choice and the insights would be sufficient, if I could get an account that is
I rang for an update, to be told they couldn’t find my previous applications, which may or may not still be picked up, to apply again and if it incurs any damage to my credit file it is their error and they’ll resolve it, apparently.
Hey ho, let’s see what happens this week.
Oh dear!
I don’t think they did, technically!
This sort of thing first appeared in the HSBC Connected Money app in around early 2018. That was also a partnership with Bud who, if you read the small print, appear to power this new feature too. So it’s not that significant, is nothing spectacular anyway, and is not even developed in-house. I’m hardly that impressed.