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First Direct

Posted on 9 Apr 2008 at 15:09

<a href="http://www.firstdirect.com" target="_self">www.firstdirect.com</a>

<strong>Rating:</strong> 4/6

First Direct was one of the pioneers of online banking at the end of the 1990s. After a couple of major revisions in the early days, its banking website has retained a similar design so everything looks a little old-fashioned, with navigational links arranged in a column down the left-hand side of the page, and content - from statements to money-transfer forms - displayed in the main panel. But it's easy enough to find your way around.

First Direct's approach to security is reassuring. Although the bank requires you to type your username in full, only three random letters are needed from your password, ensuring that keyloggers won't be able to capture your complete login information. You're also required to enter the answer to a question, which is selected from three you've previously set up. And we like that the bank guarantees money stolen from accounts via "computer crime" will be paid back (if you stick to the bank's terms and conditions).

Text message banking is impressive. Not only are mini-statements provided free, but thanks to a recent change of heart, balance alerts are also available at no additional cost. However, the website isn't without its foibles. It demands confirmations for every action of consequence you take on the site. While this seems sensible for money transfers to external bank accounts and bill payments, it isn't really necessary for transfers between savings and current accounts. Worse, the site requires confirmation when you try to log out, which is dangerous because it could result in you leaving a banking session open on a publicly accessible PC.

Statement information can be downloaded, and it's available in a wide variety of formats, from plain old Excel-compatible CSV files to Microsoft Money and Quicken. But you can't search by keyword or apply filters on the website, and historical data is a pain to access. If you want to download transaction data older than 90 days, you have to do it a month at a time - a pain if you're doing your Self Assessment forms and need a whole year's worth of statements.

Despite its robust security and cost-free mobile banking, First Direct's long experience in online banking should have resulted in a service that's easier to use than it is currently.

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