First Direct ceasing text service.

[Kryten1958]

Hi everyone, even though I am very tech savvy, I still don't want or trust banking apps, even though FD is always nagging me to use theirs rather than the telephone banking service. As a compromise I use the free weekly text (SMS) mini statement service.
They are stopping this service from August, again I believe as a way of converting customers over to the app.
Successful companies all have one thing in common, they provide the customer with the service/product they want, not try to force the service they want to provide.
All I want is an electronic statement (SMS PDF whatever) pushed to me on a regular basis from the bank.
This would be much safer and low maintenance than logging into an app.
BTW I know I can access PDF statements online, but I have to log into the app and fetch them....again we are back to the App, potential hacking etc.
Ironically I would be happy to pay a reasonable fee for such an SMS service, but this has never been offered to me.
I have been with FD for over 30 years but now I am looking for an alternative.
Am I alone in being fed up of big companies that try to impose solutions on customers rather than try to meet the needs of as many as possible?

What is it about banking APPs that bother you?

FD is aiming its services at digitally enabled people and so you may get a service more suited to you by switching accounts.

there have also been rumours that they are going to start charging people who use the HSBCs counters which is inline with them only wanting digital customers.

Kryten1958

I had the letter too and was surprised!

I agree with bring pushed into getting the App (look at all the data breaches in recent years!)

I have used the App and its good but hate having all this stuff on my phone

Authentication

Banking App

Emails

Etc

Sorry about typos

My frustration with First Direct is it's the only banking app I know that doesn't give you notifications. I set up the SMS service as a way of being notified when money was paid into my account, which even then only happens the day after. Other banks are able to notify immediately upon any transactions. Its rubbish!

@Kryten1958 I agree. I have been pleased with the level of service, but it was established as a telephone banking service. Ok, times have changed and they want to nudge people towards online, but I bet some of the people who hold most money with them fall into our camp.

It’s incredibly frustrating being forced to use an app. I haven’t been able to ever set mine up with HSBC. I love their telephone banking now they have stopped with the crappy ‘there are long waits due to Covid’ messages. I’m currently locked out of my NatWest because my DH wrongly inputted my security code three times and then fucked up my face recognition (how I don’t understand) and I really can’t be arsed ringing them up to reset it 😂. Bizarrely I do get alerts for money going in an out though? Nationwide app is very stable I’ll admit.

I agree. I was really pissed off about this. And I'm not happy having an App. My phone isn't good enough and if it's lost or stolen everything is on there.

Wolfpa
"What is it about banking APPs that bother you?

FD is aiming its services at digitally enabled people and so you may get a service more suited to you by switching accounts.

there have also been rumours that they are going to start charging people who use the HSBCs counters which is inline with them only wanting digital customers."

Thanks very much for your reply.
I am very digitally enabled but I just do not want to engage with my bank in that way.
It is the bank's job to provide a variety of services that are in demand on a profitable basis, even if this means charging for them.
There seems to be too much dogma and too little market research.

The demand for the service is just too small, even with a fee (as that would further shrink demand). It's a commercial decision.
The apps really are very secure. Data breaches are nothing to do with whether you engage with a banking app or not.

Do you work for FD?
Commercial decisions can be bad ones you know remember Formula Shell?
How does FD know that a fee based SMS would not be profitable at a high enough rate if they have never polled their customers or market tested it?
Even though banking apps are very secure, customers should still be offered a phone based viable alternative IMO.
I agree, Data breaches (where the bank is hacked) is not the concern of the customer, but if my phone with the app on it is compromised, this would be a lot of worry for me personally.

Because they know how many people use it now and they know how much it costs to run the service ( fixed costs). It’s highly unlikely that new customers would want to use it and presumably use is already declining as people convert to the app so they’d need to split the cost among the remaining customers. If they said to you it’s going to be 50 quid a month you’d almost certainly decline the offer wouldn’t you?

Exactly, they will have run some form of cost benefit analysis before making the decision. Taking into account all sorts of factors, the current and projected volume of usage, cost of offering the service, plus current and potential income, and estimating potential loss of customers by not offering this service.

In this instance I would imagine doing that just on the back of a fag packet gives a fairly clear decision.

But they have just calculated not consulted.
How do they know if a service is profitable or not if they don't test it?
This will tell them how far past breakeven revenue (there for profit) the service could be before cancelling it.
With no consultation, it is them who are calculating on the corporate equivalent of a fag packet.

But back of a fag packet is probably good enough if they can see that demand is in free fall ( ie existing customers already using the service in declining numbers.). It’s unlikely people will change banks just for that service esp if they have to pay. They may well have already done some market research.

Some services just die out because most people prefer a different medium and the old medium stops being cost effective. Has been forever thus.

I got FD two years ago after hearing mum rave about them for 20 years.

I have been seriously unimpressed with all aspects of their service.

Not just what they have removed, but what they have in place. It took us 45 blinking minutes on the phone to apply for a bank account in the first place, for example. They can be infuriating.

Talk with your feet OP and leave.

Agree it's annoying. The act is joint and dh does everything with it, I stay plugged in b
With that weekly text

I worked for a bank until I was made redundant three years ago.

It was much, much more common to see people who had been hacked/scammed etc who didn't use apps than those who do.

I joined decades ago as it was a telephone banking service. I call them when I’m driving to work.

I don’t want to use the app.

I dislike the trickery eg “due to a high volume of callers “ etc when in reality staffing has been reduced.

@Kryten1958

Even though banking apps are very secure, customers should still be offered a phone based viable alternative IMO

Why? They are running a business, why SHOULD they have to offer a service that isn't economically viable??

whether anyone likes it or not, we have to move with the times.

Because it was set up as phone banking. It’s secure and convenient.

With bank branches closing on the high street it’s good to offer a different accessible to the majority service.

Successful companies all have one thing in common, they provide the customer with the service/product they want

Exactly. Most customers want an app. They're not going to keep a service going just for the 17 people who want their bank statements by text message in 2024.

Virgin money don't have notifications for most things. But my 80 year old technophobe mother uses the app almost daily. They are merging with nationwide at the end of the year

I bank with FD . I do use the app but also love I can get straight through to them online . I also have a chase card . I do get notifications which I love but needed to phone a couple of weeks ago was 20 minutes on hold .

How will that work? Isnt Nationwide a building society?

I don’t like Virgin anything.

Not really looked into it yet, she was originally with Yorkshire Bank. The yb app was crap too.