Req: Bank Recommendations

First Direct ticks all of these with no problems. No dongle is required, you just need a username and two different passwords (which you choose). All payments are Faster Payment where supported by the other end, up to the maximum limit for FP (which is higher than £5,000). There's a standard charge of £10 a month, but that is waived if you meet at least one of three conditions:

• Have an average monthly balance of £1,500, or * Pay a minimum of £1,500 into the account each month, or * Have at least one other First Direct product

Mark

Many thanks. I'm very surprised it meets my first need because HSBC, their parent, does not.

Indeed it fails on both needs 1 and 2 where it requires a Security Device to log in and also their maximum Faster Payment by Standing Order is only £50.

I called their 0800 line and someone confirmed all that. But after I had created an account, and while discussing the security details by phone on their 08456 number, someone more knowledgeable admitted that no Standing Orders in any amount go out from First Direct using Faster Payments :-(

I reopen my request for suggestions.

If it helps make your mind up, I've done a lot of mystery shopping of banks and call centres. I think the longest I ever had to wait to speak to someone at first direct from finishing dialling the number was about five seconds, which may have been partly because of the recording system used for the call :-)

Thanks and having done that I found First Direct fails to meet my listed needs.

And they are very muddled.

An 0800 CS said that all Standing Orders went out via Faster Payments. Then their 08456 CS said none did and they had been trained that Standing Orders were not supported by Faster Payments anywhere. I directed her to look at

after which she went away for a long time and then finally returned to admit that although many other banks did what I needed, First Direct in particular does not. Simon, after all your mystery shopping do you have any suggestions?

I don't really see why it matters that much for standing orders. Pretty much by definition, there is no urgency about standing orders because they are set up in advance. So having to set them up to leave three days before the money is due is rarely an issue. Faster Payments are much more important for one-off or manual payments, as those are far more likely to be made at short notice and where the funds need to be transferred immediately.

Mark

I can see how that this would not be important for many people but for me it is useful because one SOs in particular occasionally need adjustment at the last minute. I'll go with a bank that offers this over another that does not, but so far I am not being offered that luxury of choice.

Do you really think that any bank that doesn't do this now isn't going to introduce it in the near future?

Why do you not like it anyway?

(I'm in the opposite camp, I used to refuse online banking until the UK banks got off their arse, caught up with the rest of Europe, and introduced this technology).

tim

My Tesco account started with such a device and they have since abandoned its use. Both Metro Bank and Santander told me they would not move to use them. If Tesco allowed Standing Orders and Direct Debits it would meet all of my needs. Same with Metro if they subscribed to Faster Payments. Maybe Tesco will start offering Current Accounts later this year as they once promised.

I need the ability to do my banking when out and about. I can not fill my pockets with these things all the time and also, while I am abroad I might lose or break the device and will then be cut off from my bank accounts with no easy or quick way to recover access.

Good for you - your preferences are being better served than mine.

Why not just make the payment manually, then, if you need to keep tweaking it anyway? Or try to get your supplier to take a direct debit instead.

Mark

Because it is usually correct, so why waste the time each week, and also I doubt my younger son has the facilities to take his allowance by Direct Debit. Right or wrong, that is what I continue to look for.

Are you talking about the credit card terminals. As far as I know they are all the same at a deep level. Have some banks been stupid enough to introduce a different sort of two facto authenticator?

No, this type of thing, Barclays' PINsentry:

HSBC, Barclays, NatWest, ...

That's what I mean by a card terminal. Nearly all the intelligence is on the card. Although they may have different branding and styling, I believe they all interface to the card in the same way, so you can use one bank's terminal on another bank's card.

I call it a terminal because it provides access to the card, but doesn't do much itself. It's not a reader, because all the cryptographic stuff is done on the card and there has to be a two way flow.

Santander normaly use OTP codes sent to your mobile to confirm online transactions, from their website: "However, don?t forget that the majority of commonly used online banking transactions do not require OTP. If you do not wish to use a mobile phone then you can still make a payment to a new recipient using your branch or telephone banking service. Once a new recipient is set up, subsequent payments to that recipient can be made online without OTP."

"Standing Order payments to an existing recipient will be sent by Faster Payments. If setting up a payment for the first time to a new recipient, the payment will be sent as a standard payment"

The limits are £10,000 for standing orders but a mere £300 for bill payments.

Depends on account. Prefered requires about £1000 paid in a month.

And their customer service seems to be getting much better.

Is there a reason your son can't change to use the same bank as you, to allow n internal transfer which is instant for most banks?

Thanks for the thought but, as the Subject says, I really did come here to ask for advice on any UK banks that provide a particular list of services.

The SO limit is great but a £300 limit for ad-hoc payments is not useful.

Thanks for that.