First Direct... excellent bank

[#1]

First Direct is my main bank, and has been since 2008, with good reason.

I ASK 3 THINGS OF A PHONE BASED BANK

1) Phone is answered quickly
2) The CS operator is British, and speaks good English
3) The CS in very knowledgeable and can deal with most things themselves, without having to refer upwards

Over the past couple of days I must have rang in 20+ times, in arranging various Savings products, and moving money around, each time, all of the above have been fulfilled, by different CS each time.

Phone answered within two rings every time, at very early times of day

Additionally each CS has been polite & courteous.

Thank you First Direct for employing, and training excellent staff.

Although FD is Internet based, I prefer whenever possible to deal with a Human, they can answer questions and suggest things I may not have thought of.

Also, quick clarification of legal & financial implications.

None of this foreign person with an alleged British Name, with an impenetrable accent, asking me to spell Leeds, and not knowing where Leeds is, for instance !!

Barclays lost me years ago for this very reason !

[#2]

Nationwide is also excelent   even in Bradistan

[#3]

20 calls in a couple of days to move money around ?

You must have plenty of cash.

[#4]

I've been fighting for years to keep our local branch of Barclays in Filey open for the sake of the high street so I keep my account with them. It's a loosing battle though, my account was moved by them to Scarborough and the Filey branch is more a sales office now. When I go in "my" branch in Scarborough they have fully automated it with a member of staff intercepting you before you can get to the one human teller and helping you use an machine. 

Must admit most of my banking is done through an App on my smartphone. 

[#5]

Back in the 70s the small yet busy town where we lived used to have the four major banks plus a post office but once it became little more than a post industrial backwater they all upped sticks and left. Necessary I guess but what a pity the town could not even hang on to it's post office.

Makes for a sad game, walking around towns trying to spot where the banks used to be by looking for those names and symbols carved in stone.     

[#6]

When I first had a bank account I was introduced to the bank manager by my dad t see if I was a suitable person to have a bank account

THen when I went to work most people were paid proper folding money an coin in a paypacket and they kept their cash in an old oxo tin or behind the clock on the mantelpiece. I remember the old English Electric company having a bid drive to get people to have bank accounts and pay them by bank transfer. That was around 1968. 

[#7]

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Infinity wrote:

I ASK 3 THINGS OF A PHONE BASED BANK

2) The CS operator is British, and speaks good English

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You check the nationality of the operator? I would have thought the ability to speak good English would be enough, without having to go through checking their nationality. I am also not sure why you put such strict criteria in place for your phone banking given that your post contains several grammatical errors.

[#8]

...... and now of course you have no choice. No more payments from employers in cash, now even less in your pocket, and when was the last time any of of used a cheque book. Used to receive them on a regular basis from the bank and as for those managers of old, most were just jumped up self important little squirts truth be told.  

[#9]

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gleneagles wrote:

20 calls in a couple of days to move money around ?

You must have plenty of cash.

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Yeah thats what I thought... please.. move some my way lol.

[#10]

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Minivanman wrote:

...... and now of course you have no choice. No more payments from employers in cash, now even less in your pocket

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Thats all i've ever known!

[#11]

The local Lloyds bank (which had been in place for decades) closed recently, kind of silly really given that they went through all the trouble to de-TSB it when they split that name off, only to close it down, and it wasn't exactly a quiet backwater bank either, every time I went in to drop off the coppers it was always busy, now the nearest one is a £3 bus ride away...

No real reason given for closing it, but it does make banking with real cash harder, but that's the way they want it, no real cash, just online and easy to intercept and monitor banking...

[#12]

Yeah but it's not going to go that way successfully is it. Nobody trusts the banks or government with money and so people will always continue to withdraw and spend cash instead of having everything monitored and screwed with.

Granted electronic money would put a stop to shop till robberies overnight but it isn't going to happen - not in our lifetimes anyway.

[#13]

[#14]

I just lift a few floorboards if i need to check my bank  

[#15]

Under the floorboards? Read somewhere that 'valuables' were often hidden under the dog kennels - apparently that's the first place they search with those metal detectors when researching old house ruins. I wonder if it works with hamster cages?  Up the chimney was another one, but who has those these days?