I was recently the victim of a scam in which I made a number of card payments and bank transfers totalling some £15,000 to a rogue company without getting anything in return. First Direct is signed up to an inter-bank code of practice for protecting and compensating victims of fraud which “includes detecting high-risk payments, identifying vulnerable customers, and delaying or freezing payments that might be part of a scam . . . the bank will be required to refund the customer’s losses from a communal fund, even if it did nothing wrong”. Despite being a customer for some 30 years, First Direct refused to give me any compensation, under either the Visa card guarantee or the code of practice and did nothing, either under the code or otherwise, to mitigate my losses. I am now having to complain to the Financial Ombudsman. It’s said that in times of crisis you find out who your friends are, and First Direct has proved to be no friend of mine! I can therefore no longer recommend First Direct to potential new customers - you would be better going to other banks which (like TSB, for example) have more comprehensive fraud protection policies anyway.
Reviewed on: 24th February 2020
