I’ve never heard anyone have a bad thing to say about First Direct. Well, up until now, anyway. They’re the best of a bad bunch I reckon.
I agree with the last part of that. I’ve been a customer of theirs for almost 20 years, in which time I’ve had a couple of falling-outs with them, but generally they’re better than anyone else I’ve banked with (including a recent flirtation with Smile that was a disaster).
Santander are absolutely hopeless, but you’ve realised that now!
My worst experiences with FD have always been over unsolicited marketing. They actually changed their Terms and Conditions rather than concede defeat over one of our disgreements 🙂
I’ve never really had a problem withdrawing lump sums from FD via HSBC – yes you pre-arrange it over the phone, but that’s the same for most banks. The only difficult part is when First Direct hand you over to the regular HSBC call centre numpties to confirm the details…