Good grief! For this reason alone leave First Direct behind and never look back! 
The requirement for the minimum monthly deposit to avoid current account fees is stupid as well. FD is as legacy as rusted car 
Iâm not looking to defend FD here - I donât love their app⊠ButâŠ
You donât need any card reader to add a new payee.
Itâs incredibly easy to make a bank transfer (and itâs easy to add a new payee, and pay them at the same time).
How much simpler do people really need it?
4 Likes
All I can say is card top ups need to go for EVERYONE. It is not a prepaid card but current account. Those who top up with cards cost the business money (I donât care if it is Monzo or Starling) and probably donât put in enough to compensate. Monzo is making losses at the moment, time to cut losses. I canât see top ups being in place 2 years from now on, anyway.
3 Likes
Tell me more, because that is not my experience.
Iâm not really sure what more there is to tellâŠ
I have an iPhone - I canât imagine itâs different on Android.
If you have the app⊠Try it?
1 Like
From what I remember you need this horrid calculator.
Yep and it states Feature unavailable. You need a Digital Secure Key on this device . So I have always had to add them via the website and using the calculator thing with my debit card inserted.
Sounds like you donât have the digital secure key set up on your device.
What phone do you have?
FWIWâŠ
To use Our App you must be a first direct customer and have set up your telephone security. If youâre not registered, simply download the App and follow the on-screen instructions.
What devices can the app be used on?
- Apple: compatible with iPhone, iPad and iPod touch. Requires iOS 9.0 or later
- Androidâą: any mobile device running Android 4.3 or later
and thisâŠ
Can I have a Secure Key as well as a Digital Secure Key?
No. To maintain security, you can only have one Secure Key at any time. But if you choose one and change your mind, just call us on 03 456 100 100 and weâll swap you over.
It might well be possible but look at the friction involved for me.
The friction is there because you chose a secure key (physical), not a digital secure key.
1 phone call to the very best CS team Iâve ever dealt with (on the phone), is hardly friction.
Especially if it then means you can do everything from your phone.
I donât think companies should get criticised for what is ultimately, a user/customer choice.
4 Likes
HSBC forced those crappy keychain calculator Secure Keys onto users for quite some time, before making it available in app 
2 Likes
Iâve been with FD for around 8 years⊠Never had one of the calculator things.
3 Likes
Hmmmm I donât know, maybe itâs the fact that most other banks have branches where people can pay in cash. 
I am criticising no one. The question was why use top ups. I gave my reasons. Work arounds were suggested which involve me buying a fingerprint enabled phone. Calling FD CS and changing to a DSK. That is considerable friction for me and what do I gain? Remember Monzo have already annoyed me with the prepay foreign atm decisions.
2 Likes
I think the problem is there is a whole load of misinformation flying around - Which is shaping peopleâs views.
You do not need a new phone (or a phone with a fingerprint scanner) - You can log in with your password on the app as normal.
You chose a physical secure key - You can swap that to a digital secure key by calling FD.
I was vocal about the Foreign ATM thing, because it felt like a selling point in the pre paid era.
Debit card top ups have never been a âselling pointâ - But I appreciate people still use them.
I just find it a little surprising there are people who clearly want their bank (Monzo) to succeed and do well, yet arenât prepared to do a single thing to help?
I donât think anyone expects people to massively go out of their way, or spend their own money - But is topping up by debit card really that important? Is getting a digital secure key from FD really that much of a (one time) hassle?
I cringed when I saw Monzo post âplease try not to use ATMâs, it costs us moneyâ - I donât think a bank should do that (whilst appreciating the position Monzo were in).
But Iâm yet to see a good reason (or an existing example) to keep debit card top upsâŠ
10 Likes
What gets me about this debate is that Monzo is no longer a prepaid card, yes you can use it essentially in the same way as before but Monzo do not want people to top up as their main method of transferring money.
It just screams to me: " Iâve always done it this way so why should I do it any differently". I understand some banks make it difficult to transfer money to another but Monzo wants to be your current account, not your top up account. Just my two cents really
4 Likes
They /could/ write their own software to handle inbound card payments (instead of using Stripe), but thatâll be quite a bit of work and cost and I doubt the usage is high enough for there to be a return on investment. (Theyâll need to get merchant licences from Visa, Mastercard etc, build their systems to integrate with theirs etc etc - whereas using Stripe costs them xx%/xxp, but means much simple integration etc).
Donât forget, that as well as any âpayment processing feesâ from Stripe for just using their systems, Stripe also has to pay their merchant account provider (and since these are probably classed as âhigher risk cash paymentsâ rather than physical goods, the rates will be slightly higher than usual), who then has to pay the card network (Visa/Mastercard) for sending the details across to them who will need to pay the card provider (such as Monzo themselves).
So even if Monzo spent the time and effort doing their own âdirectâ integration for processing card payments, theyâll still have quite a bit of cost for each transaction anyway.
3 Likes
Does anyone know how much it would cost Monzo per transaction if they had there own software compared to how much it costs them now?
I thought the bank of the paying card would get charged by MasterCard/Visa just like merchants are charged when we use our cards to buy stuff online?
If the cost per transaction of using their own software is very small or non-existant, this seems the best solution to prevent a potential PR disaster and keep a load of users happy.
1 Like
Have you ever tried to log in to HSBC banking app on a smartphone or tablet without fingerprint scanner? 
1 Like
We are talking about First Direct - Always have been 
1 Like