Well I couldn’t see a general thread for FD, so here it is!
I’ll start.
fDesign
I note they’ve ported fDesign over to the same platform used by the HSBC customer studio. Now, whether this means things will actually start to happen who knows.
But, it’s a start!
Perhaps from this we will finally start to see things long promised such as coughtransaction notificationscough
1 Like
I have my mortgage with first direct. The fixed rate and the overpayment (unlimited) flexibility was second to none at the time.
Application process? Slow (signatures in the post and the like) with rafts of paperwork about other products I had 0 interest in.
I’m also not best pleased with it being one of my only banking providers to have a shocking track record wrt the environment - but herein lies their relevance in the deep pocketed product offering…
2 Likes
I too have this reservation but I’m not sure what the truly better alternative is really. Tridos at guess, perhaps Algbra.
I read an interesting report (it’s quite old) from Friends of the Earth that 6k saved with Triodos as opposed to ABN AMRO (imagine HSBC or Barclays would be even worse actors) is a similar equivalent to keeping your car on the drive for six months (due to the “accelerator” affect that investment into new fossil fuel projects has vie a vis investment into sustainable projects).
I do think Triodos stand out in terms of
a relatively long-standing lending history of lending to projects that meet a certain criteria. But I’m aware some people have raised ethical concerns about some lending in SE Asia.
Tandem have green credentials from a takeover/merger of/with a company offering cheaper mortgages/loans for energy efficient homes/projects - its savings only from a depositors perspective. From what I can see of Kroo and Algbra it doesn’t go much further than tree planting/offsetting but I might be wrong…
TLDR a bit of digression about environmentally friendly banks we can get back to FD 
I suppose I see my mortgage as being offset by other providers and I don’t intend to have it for life/I could change mortgage provider & be more picky when the 5 year fix ends…
1 Like
It was jarring applying for my loan having to send stuff over to first direct. I like them as a bank. Very nice to have as a back up
1 Like
What type of transactions can customers perform using First Direct bank’s text messaging service? Is this feature still available at this time?