I’ve been enjoying my First Direct account lately — here’s the full review — and using it daily has surfaced a few quirks worth noting. None of them are dealbreakers, but they’re interesting in that very First Direct way: quietly HSBC under the surface.
1. You can’t close a savings account yourself
Most banks let you close a savings account in the app, or at least through secure messaging. First Direct insists on a phone call. If you want to close an Easy Access Saver, a Bonus Saver, a Cash ISA — anything — you have to ring them, go through the full identification routine, and ask a human to close it. They might even ask why you’re closing it. It’s not terrible, but it’s unusual. Great customer service is one thing; making you engage with it for basic admin is another.
2. Once you close a savings account, you can’t reopen it
This seems to be the direction of travel in banking these days. Starling and Monzo don’t really welcome returning customers. Chase won’t let you raise a credit limit once you’ve lowered it in the app. And First Direct treats basic savings accounts the same way: close it once, and that door stays shut. It’s a kind of irreversibility trend and I don’t think I like it.
3. You can’t rename or easily delete payees
This one genuinely surprised me. When you add a new payee, First Direct lets you set a friendly label — which is great, because it stops you ending up with five payees under your own name. But if that label ever needs changing, or you spot a typo, you’re stuck. You can’t edit it. And you can’t delete the payee either, “for security reasons”. The only workaround is to leave it unused for a week or so, then remove it and start again. It’s not a disaster, but it does feel like a little wink from the old HSBC security‑theatre era, as if to say: “missed us much?”
Final thought
None of this changes the fact that First Direct is still one of the most reliable, low‑friction banks in the UK. These quirks are far from being dealbreakers — they just remind you that beneath the speedy app and the smooth experience, there’s still a legacy bank lurking around. Oh well, no one’s perfect.
