First Direct - they've lost the plot

[Oversteer]

With a balance of over £20,000 in all accounts, and NO account in debit,
they cancelled all my cards. I filled up with fuel and ended up spending
an hour in a fuel station until my wife turned up to "bail me out".

The reason for this was that I'd moved last year and, whilst waiting for
my new home to become ready (new build) I and my family had to rent a
house for a brief period. To avoid the complications of having mail
redirected to the rented property (which we lived in for 3 months) I got
a PO Box and had all mail sent there. After one year the PO Box expired
and whatever mail they sent to it was returned "Gone Away". So fking
what you stupid fkers, I've got an e-mail address, use it.

Now I have to say that I'm very much a child of the internet generation.
I was using the "internet" (it wasn't called that then) in 1985. I HATE
using the post, It's completely ridiculous. But First Direct would have
us believe that they're an internet bank. ARE THEY fk. I'd love to have
just one of those fkers here right now to batter their heads in. S.

Edited by Oversteer on Wednesday 22 December 02:39

[Funk]

So basically they found you were uncontactable by the most secure methods as the result of a mistake YOU made, and as a precaution shut down the accounts?

I think they did the right thing. I would ignore any email from a bank given the amount of spam and phishing that goes on via email.

[Fatman2]

Damned if you do, damned if you don't. If they didn't cancel your cards and someone fraudulently used yours then you'd be complaining that their security measures were rubbish.

I can't fault FD to be honest and I've been with them for over 10 years. I interpret what they did as being supremely security concious and what I would expect given the situation.

If you are going to continue being cheesed off for what they did then maybe you should be equally/more cheesed off with yourself for not 'managing' your situation better. Ultimately it is not their responsibility to chase you up and to pin point your location. Did you not think to even phone them up during all that time to let them know what your situation was ?

[scdan4]

HSBC, who i think are the same as first direct, pulled a similar trick on me a few years ago.

It was about the time of the post office strike (the first? one, not the most recent). Because of the strike the PO, bless them, returned a letter sent to me from HSBC, to the bank. This was enough to cause HSBC to cancel all of my accounts, immediately, and fairly irreversibly. No other attempt to contact me was made even though they had, and used, my mobile number and email address. The only way to reinstate, according to the nice man in india, was to present myself at the account opening branch with many forms of ID and beg them nicely. Except that that wouldn't "reinstate" it as i had now been identified as a security risk and would only be allowed the cash point only card for 16 yr olds, (with no O/D or debit payment facility) This was complicated as I could only do this at the branch I opened an account at. I had moved a few times in the previous 10 years or so and this branch was over 100 miles away. Gits.

I concluded they didn't want my business and moved everything to Alliance and Fester using their account transfer service which went well despite being the aforementioned security risk and never presenting them (HSBC) with ID.

Aliens and Feta however attempted to trump this sterling customer serafter a few months in their tender care by sending out a new card. Apparently. I never received or saw it, or indeed even knew of its existence until my "old" card stopped working (having brimmed it in a fuel station at 6am on a monday morning) because "we automatically cancel the old card 6 weeks after issuing the new card sir", despite the new card not having been activated, used or acknowledged somehow. That when i discovered that they didn't have a customer service number, you had to go to branch.......

Banks? Gits, the lot of them.

[nomisesor]

I've been with FD since about a year after they started and (apart from rubbish interest rates, as all other providers except Madoff) am very satisfied. I have no other connection with the bank. Surely they were protecting your £20k from someone who might be using a PO box to steal it from you? Did you phone them?

[Wings]

I have been with FD for over 19 years, have stood in the car park of a car auctioners, speaking on the phone to FD, and been granted £10k overdraft.

The OP has created the problem, and not FD.

[NoelWatson]

nomisesor said:

from rubbish interest rates

I find their rates market leading (on mortgage side)

[Magic919]

For efficiency of administration I make that

FD 1 OP 0

[Fatman2]

nomisesor said:

I've been with FD since about a year after they started and (apart from rubbish interest rates, as all other providers except Madoff) am very satisfied. I have no other connection with the bank. Surely they were protecting your £20k from someone who might be using a PO box to steal it from you? Did you phone them?

FD aren't the best on all rates because they have a solid lending book and actually have some morals when it comes to people borrowing money.

I agree with Noel though. Some of their rates are indeed market leading.

[cailean]

Been with FD for over 10 years and find them in a class of their own. Can't recommend them highly enough.

[Anthony Micallef]

Have to agree with the OP. FD could have least given him a quick call. Most banks phone 1st when they are doing security checks.

[cannedheat]

The reason why accounts are blocked when post is returned 'gone away' is to prompt the customer to make contact. Rather extreme, yes, but it's the best way of making a 'lost' customer reinstate contact.

Credit balances or not, when a customer becomes 'gone away' it makes it much harder to chase possible debts/record credit histories...etc.

[CobolMan]

Many banks do not send out e-mails due to the phishing risk. If you change your address it's your responsibility to inform the bank, there's only so much that they can do to get in contact with people.
Out of interest, have you informed DVLA about your change of address?

[tali1]

NoelWatson said:

nomisesor said:

from rubbish interest rates

I find their rates market leading (on mortgage side)

Agree intrests rubbish - although the £100 incentive would take heck of a long time to earn in most bank accounts- so that should be factored in
I have taken lots of money out of FD -because of their poor rates - it seems there is a cost for the first class customer service
It's abit like car insurance - do you go cheap and heck with it -or pay extra for better service- i simply go for the cheapest
Mortgage wise Halifax have been fine for me- and i am not keen on FD complicated offset mortgages

[A14RGS]

cailean said:

Been with FD for over 10 years and find them in a class of their own. Can't recommend them highly enough.

+1

[Countdown]

anonymous said:

[redacted]

Me too

[anonymous-user]

[quote=cannedheat]The
reason why accounts are blocked when post is returned 'gone away' is to prompt the customer to make contact. Rather extreme, yes, but it's the best way of making a 'lost' customer reinstate contact.

Credit balances or not, when a customer becomes 'gone away' it makes it much harder to chase possible debts/record credit histories...etc.

[/quote

+1.
It worked

In protest OP have you now moved the account elsewhere or accepted being partly to blame ?

one of my pals kindly had 28k removed from his account & his 'lunch' declined in the supermarket by the time the bank rang him

i'd rather wait an hr in a petrol station than worry about £28k.
when your 'problem' happened to me at a jeweller in a foreign country ( common fraud occurance) i rang them & it was sorted within 15 mins after i passed 'security' checks

ps don't most petrol stations just get you to sigh an indemnity guarantee nowadays and pay at a later stage or is that just supermarket one's
Maybe you just look too dodgy. No fixed abode etc

[northandy]

Worst I've got 20 large in the bank ever..... Only joking

Personally I have found fd to be brilliant, been a customer for about 15 years now.

[dnb]

I can do better than that. I believe I followed all the rules I was supposed to, but still there were considerable hurdles placed between me and my money.

I put the proceeds from selling my flat in London in a savings account with my old bank (think of a building where patriotic monks would be at home) to keep it safe for a couple of months while we got settled in a new area and found a house.

They told me that I couldn't possibly have my house deposit back via their internet banking "solution" despite it being in an internet based savings account. So I went in to the local branch, pockets stuffed with ID information, to complain and was told that they couldn't help me - I would "have to use the internet or a cash machine" (yes, I did ask to withdraw nearly £90k ).

I explained the futility of the counter offerings with much disbelief that anyone could be so daft, and was offered a telephone to phone the hellphone "help" system. The nice lady in India managed to find a way to get a cheque sent to my solicitors, but it was so delayed that it nearly lost us the house we were buying (The cheque cleared the morning of the sale, having used up all 2 weeks of margin). I couldn't close the account either - I had to do that from the counter at a branch, but only when the account was empty, and there were precious few ways to empty it... Like I'm going to fall in to the trap of putting more money in to the "black hole account" again.

[TotalControl]

FD have honestly worked wonders for me so far. Even to the point where they called me to ask if anything suspicious was seen on my account as money had been withdrawn thrice within an hour. Top service.