Poor internet banking, good phone service

“Poor internet banking, good phone service”

Written on: 22/06/2012

FIRST DIRECT CURRENT ACCOUNT: FD is part of HSBC, but the call centres are based in Yorkshire, not India. As a result, the 'phone service is efficient and punchy. However, and it's a big however, the internet banking service is really poor. Other banks and building societies had better internet banking services at the turn of the millenium let alone now. You have to set up payees using FD's names - you can't enter details yourself. Similarly, you can't rename or amend payees yourself. This is basic stuff! Instead of spening money to put this right, FD is spending money on wacky social media projects, podcasts and asking you to "like" it on facebook. I opened an account with them a few years ago, but am now going back to one of two building societies (also UK call centres) both of which have far better internet bankijng functionality. It's a shame - the phone service is very good, but that's just not enough.