I’ve been a First Direct customer for 20 years and in general found them very good, but now I am sick to the teeth of their rubbish internet banking website and their clunky iPhone app.

For example – yesterday I made a bank transfer to pay for something, Now I want to send the seller a proof that I made the transfer – like a screendump showing the amount I transferred and the account details. No can do. To get this information I have to pay 10 quid for them to send me a confirmation of the transaction. Whaaat?

Another example – I want to transfer money to a European account from the internet. Can’t – you have to phone them and ask them to do it.

Another example – I want to download my transactions for the year and analyse my spending. Can’t – only last 90 days.

Another example – I want to download my statements. Can, but it take a god-awful number of clicks to do each one. Compare with my ABN Amro account where I can download 6 months at a time.

And their iPhone app – don’t get me started.

So which banks have really got a proper internet banking facility? It’s a pain to change banks, but it’s getting to the point where it’s worth it.

Barclays app and website is pretty good.

Am I missing something? Just hold Home + Power buttons on the iphone to take a screenshot.

I like the co-op, despite their problems.

Lloyds. (and I’ve used them all!) (well, apart from Co-Op)

Lloyds doesn’t have any stupid devices when you set up payments, it just phones you, so simple.

iPhone app is good too.

Halifax is blissfully free of silly devices, but does require automatic phone confirmation when adding recipients.

The app seems to work fine although I haven’t used it for much as yet.

Cheers, Rich

Am I missing something? Just hold Home + Power buttons on the iphone to take a screenshot.

The only time you can do that is when you actually make the payment. If you want to come back later and see the details of a transaction, you can’t.

As jam bo, I would recommend Barclays for their online banking, but that’s only really if you have simple needs (which they meet extremely well).

Ive just had a git of a time trying to set up a Euro account (there’s no integration of international banking account management into their retail banking division – however I can see my Euro account balance online)

The mobile banking app is very good and mobile pin sentry a much more convenient way of passing security access credentials.

Barclays also screwed me out of an extremely lucrative mortgage 4 years ago so I just keep all my current accounts there to make the most of what they do well (and costs them to do) and do all my valuable stuff (buy ISAs, Shares, Insurance, Mortgages etc) elsewhere

FWIW, Lloyds and Halifax are the same thing.

The only time you can do that is when you actually make the payment. If you want to come back later and see the details of a transaction, you can’t.

Fair enough, that does sound pants.

Best of a bad job. I tried a couple of other banks and none of them touch FD so I went back.

Barclays / Halifax all felt like internet banking was an afterthought.

I understand your pain with what you are trying to do but IME no one else is any better.

Another example – I want to transfer money to a European account from the internet. Can’t – you have to phone them and ask them to do it.

I’d recommend TransferWise for this. Not as fast as a bank transfer – can take up to three days, though my last one was done in a day – but you’ll get a better exchange rate and no fee (as such). No reason why you couldn’t use this for domestic transfers too, and you’d get an easily accessible record of transactions.

Nationwide. Easy website to use. Good experience all around really.
I’ve been a HSBC and Lloyds customer and they made me feel like they were doing me a favour by letting me have an account.
I can even phone my own branch (remember that?)

Moving out to Oz…. It’s been really noticeable how much better (from a regular customers perspective) the banks are. Online banking in particular is an order of magnitude better. I still use my UK accounts – and it’s like stepping back in time then I have to log in.

I agree that the new on-line interface is a bit crap, but at 8am one Sunday last winter in Chambery, when my credit card got refused, it was priceless the looks on the Hire car Froggie’s faces when I said ‘No problem’, rang First Direct and they instantly approved the payment.

First Direct are pretty hard to beat I think.

I’ve always found smile very good not tried any others so cant compare!

The only time you can do that is when you actually make the payment. If you want to come back later and see the details of a transaction, you can’t.

Come back later and it shows in your ledger, account breakdown view, simply take screenshot 🙂

I’ve been with them all and First Direct still top my list. Phone answered in a few rings, with no queue, worth its weight in gold. CS always top notch and everything always sorted very quickly.

ps. also with faster payment bank transfers take minutes.

i went from Lloyds to FD and First Direct are miles and miles better.

Come back later and it shows in your ledger, account breakdown view, simply take screenshot

I don’t think it does. I don’t think there’s a view that shows the payment amount and bank details of the recipient. Bad news if they are the best 🙁

I agree that the new on-line interface is a bit crap, but at 8am one Sunday last winter in Chambery, when my credit card got refused, it was priceless the looks on the Hire car Froggie’s faces when I said ‘No problem’, rang First Direct and they instantly approved the payment.

I had an experience a bit like that. Except that I was an autoroute toll booth in Italy when my card was refused. Luckily I had another one from a less paranoid bank.