From: Geraint.Jones@comlab.oxford.ac.uk (Geraint Jones)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.british
Subject: Re: First Direct vs. High St. banking
Date: 6 Oct 92 20:48:35 GMT
Reply-To: Geraint.Jones@comlab.oxford.ac.uk (Geraint Jones)
Organization: Madeleine Schneider and her Orchestra (Second Fiddles)
Originator: geraint@pierrot.comlab

ian@hpopd.pwd.hp.com (Ian Watson) wrote:
(  First Direct obviously talk only about the things that you can do just as
 ) easily with them as with a High Street bank. Are they omitting to mention any
(  services that they cannot provide, or which are more hassle ?
 ) 
(  From their literature, I can't see any disadvantages, except perhaps that you
 ) deal with someone on the phone rather than seeing them face-to-face.  Does
(  anyone have any experiences, good or bad, with First Direct ?  Are there any
 ) catches to banking with them ?

The only catch I have found is that it is a bit of a pain that there is almost
nowhere in Scotland where you can make over-the-counter in-payments free.
Since the Midland bank used to operate Clydesdale, it has few (only one, 
or two?) branches of its own; and they no longer own Clydesdale so Clydesdale 
doesn't do free counter-business for First Direct.  If you're in Scotland, 
that probably means you don't want First Direct as your only bank.  You can 
use Clydesdale ATMs though, and the 0345 number is still a local call from 
Scotland.

They are rumoured to have a tighter policy on business from dubious addresses,
or custom assumed not to be out-and-out profitable, but perhaps other banks
have tightened up a bit too.  My Clydesdale account in Partick (now why would
I have one of those?) was harder to get going than I had expected.

They've only made one noticeable cock-up with my money in the last two years, 
which I suppose is one more than I suffered in the previous fifteen.  It was
a 12 payment standing order which they inadvertently keyed in as 122 payments.
Still, any bank /might/ have done that, and it has nothing to do with voice
rather than paper communication.  They were eventually very keen to get things
sorted out, and get me my money back and all that.

Ah, I know what the /real/ pain is.  Sometimes, about once in twenty calls
perhaps, when you've finished doing something with them on the phone they 
will ask you `just before you go' whether you're interested in this product 
or that, or whether you've received this advert from them yet, and whether 
you want to do something about it.  It's a bit like double-glazing salesmen, 
on a call for which you're paying, but if you're up to saying `no' quickly 
and ignoring it it can be lived with.

The convenience of doing your banking on a Saturday afternoon, or a Sunday 
evening, outweighs any disadvantages for me.  Let's say that I would miss
the convenience if it went away.  Mind you, I still trot down to a /real/ bank
when I want to do something clever like turning funny-money into foreign
cash or something like that.  They would send it through the post but that   /
would be much less fun (and a bit of a pain given the speed of the post     /
hereabouts).						                   / g
Newsgroups: soc.culture.british,talk.religion.misc,soc.culture.europe