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First Direct – it’s all gone wrong !!

FirstdirectDo you bank with first direct online? First Direct one of the first phone and online banks in the UK, last week upgraded the security on their internet banking site – and made a complete mess of the job. So currently I and many others are locked out of our accounts, and even worse.. my beloved safari browser is no longer supported.

Time to back out of the changes perhaps First Direct ?

Written and submitted from home, using my home 802.11 network.

5 replies on “First Direct – it’s all gone wrong !!”

yes this also happened to me – however I did manage to get them to unlock my account (after waiting 25 mins on the phone) – only to find that the downloaded statements no longer work in Microsoft Money. Great one FD!

I’ve been waiting for FD to sort things out since last Thursday – when I first tried to complete the new security details. So far five telephone calls of varying lengths – with FD’s “IT” people and others – have had no effect. I’m still locked out, spitting feathers, and investigating other on-line banks. What a way to treat customers (in my case a customer from FD’s start-up!)

Me too! I was locked out and couldn’t manage my account over the weekend until access was restored after a 20 min wait on the ‘phone. My wife closed her current account and we also closed our joint account with FD in December after the charging announcement. I was one of their first 150,000 customers and have often recommended them to family and friends – but no more. They’ve become just like any other bank. What surprises me is just how quickly they’ve gone from heroes to zeroes. Chris Pelling seems to have pressed the self destruct button.

I have experienced the same problem with my microsoft money downloads – they’ve stopped working!
I’ve tried lots of their drop down file formats and none appear to give me data in the right format. Some even deny any transactions aval to download! Arrrggghhh.
Awaiting a call back from their technical support team.

It’s gone horribly wrong…

I have only ever been locked out of my account when mixing up my online and phone password – consequently failing security checks.

I use only “Internet Banking” and not “Internet Banking Plus”.

I find them reliable, consistent and professional.

My only complaint is that, over the last year (2008) I’ve experienced a ‘we are too busy, call back later’ message and a longer number of rings to answer the phone – but then I do call at about 1am most times because of where I live.

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