Kind of… They have the Bonus savings account which pays 2.6% , which is only given in the months you don’t make a withdrawal. If you make a withdrawal then the rate is .65% for that month. Essentially an easy access with friction savings account.
FD has become my main account now having moved over from NatWest. The app for NatWest functionality wise is leagues ahead of FD, almost neobanky imo. However the CS is terrible and there’s no branches near me at all. So because of that I decided to go with FD. The CS has been top notch, waaaaay better than Monzo and Chase of the fintechs and hands better than any high street bank… The only minor negative has been the app, visually I really vibe with the style the monochromatic minimalist style is . Notifications really is the only thing I want them to add…
Thanks for the info I appreciate it! So it’s easy access but you lose the better rate for that month if you take money out, I guess it doesn’t effect previous or later months rate?
Looking in the app I can only see the 7% savings account…
Nope just that month. Then the next month it returns to 2.6% as long you don’t sup into it again. Unlike the 7% regular saver the interest is paid monthly too. Which I always find motivating to keep on saving personally
You have to ring them up to set up the savings accounts though. Which didn’t take long and the CS rep that helped me was at pains to make sure I knew what the situations with each of the accounts was.
I’d say the feature I want the most is rounds ups. Most places do them now and I find they’re a nice little booster to saving. I was kinda surprised to see that FD didn’t do that. Feels like a fairly ubiquitous feature nowadays…
You have to call to open the bonus saver one over the phone, which is a transfer to another team.
Their app needs some upgrades IE remove pending transactions, have available balance on home page and get notifications into play alongside full product availability about to be done through app without human intervention.
Well despite missing their inital date (how very FD) they’ve finally moved fDesign across to the same tool that HSBC’s customer studio uses.
Can’t log back in (yet) but I look forward to hearing about how transaction notifications are coming soon /sarcastictone
This and the latest App Store update (‘big changes we’ve got coming’) make me think that either FD might finally wake up and become the challenger testbed for HSBC (unlikely but who knows) or it’s just making someone from marketing feel good about themselves.
The whole App Store screenshots are really focusing down on the insights, app and how modern they are becoming.
Dunno, it said something along the lines of the receiving bank can’t accept payments at this time. I was paying from FD current account to my FD Gold CC.
I just tried again, logged in and paid straight away.
I’ll be mindful what I share here, but the first survey asks about how comfortable people are with:
Investments
Buying things on interest free credit
Going to branches (which is an odd one since they don’t have any!)
Clearly someone finally realised that Chase and Flex were things
I suspect this will end the same way HSBCs customer studio has done, a black hole of commentary from customers that may or may not be used to direct future app feedback.
Well let’s hope FD find their “challenger” roots again and up their game. They have a lot going for them imo. But innovative isn’t what I would call them. Back before Monzo perhaps.
I’ll have to login and see what’s the haps with FDesign. Signed up just before they started the move to the new platform.
I think because they still sell themselves as a telephone based bank and that’s where their
Major service and older clients use I think they’ll never change that USP.
The guy who was brought in to help that had tons of ideas was it 2 years ago? Then he left to go somewhere else and it all stopped. He was talking about lowering the customer profile (not as wealthy) and competing with Monzo/Starling
. Notifications really is the only thing I want them to add…
