As bad as all the rest when it really comes down to it.

“As bad as all the rest when it really comes down to it.”

Written on: 16/02/2012

I no longer have a bank account. I get paid in cash. It's the only way to not get messed around with banks and their, quite frankly, disgusting customer care.
I was sucked in by First Direct's "Holier than thou" attitude towards other banks, and all the hype regarding their customer service after many years of putting up with dreadful service from both Barclays and Abbey National.
Sadly, they're just like all the others, indeed (not that I had any) but their unpaid DD/SO charges are the highest around.
This review however, deals with something else.
Every Friday my cash card would stop working, usually on the way home. I would phone them (admittedly, the call was answered by a human within about 3 rings every single time I called), and they would say that due to suspicious activity on my account, the card had been stopped and that their 'fraud dept.' wouldn't be contactable until 9am on Monday. I would phone them, they would re-instate the card.
This went on for weeks.
One morning I got my car back after lending it to my ex-wife, and it had no petrol in it at all! I had to get some cash as our local station was a little family owned one with no card reader, I went to the cash-point, and...my card had been stopped again. I phoned, the chap said that because it was before 9am that I would have to wait to speak to the fraud dept, or use another cash-point. I verified with him that this would work in another cash point (as this seemed a little far-fetched), he assured me that it would.
I drove the 10 miles to the next cashpoint...with no petrol in the car...and sure enough, it didn't work there either. I ran out of juice. I phoned the bank again to see if they could do something to get me to my own cash as I had to get my daughter to school, and they hung up on me.
So, don't believe the hype.
They lie, and they will just drop your call if you ask for anything that they can't be bothered to sort out.