First Active - poor service.

I appear to be having a lot of problems with First Active at the moment.

A letter sent was not answered. An email sent was "bounced back". When I phoned about the email I was put through to the mortgages department.

Two family SSIA's maturing in a few months time received the form that has to be signed 1 month before maturity. However the First Active self addressed envelopes enclosed for returning these forms had two different addresses on them.

Anyone else having problems?

we have a mortgage with them, any change however slight requires many letters - not email, and phone calls. They promised faithfully that they sent us a letter 3 times, we got it 4 weeks later. The call centre agents are very quick to say, "I'll call you back..." and all in all they are annoying to deal with. So you are not alone.

Yes, their service has declined. Our main mtge is with them (comm. type),
got a letter to say it was transferred to Ulster Bank. When I rang f. Active to query my account, customer services did not recognize our acc. no. Eventually got talking to a bloke who said they had been having teething problems with the change over, told me my acc. was in credit when it wasn't. Very unprofessional. I had to write to them to get a statement!

I'm having a nightmare with them as well. They overcharged me a months mortgage in November and they still have not paid me back the money. They have of course been able to take two subsequent mortgage payments from my account.

Sounds like some of the FA problems might be down to the earlier takeover by RBOS/UB?

There have been some systems migration at FA/UB/RBS recently so I wouldn't be suprised if they hadn't settled down.

But they should inform their customers of any difficulties as opposed to avoiding them.

I needed to check out if they received the SSIA, one month before maturity forms and was told that they were weeks behind in registering them.

I got a call from a friend recently looking for advice on First Active.

she had invested IR£9,000 with them back in 1999, I think.

She just left it there and had done nothing about it.

She went to get it recently and she has been told that they have no record of it. Despite the fact that she actually has the paper documentation herself, the woman in the branch says that they can't find the money anywhere.

I have heard similar stories at AGMs of various building societies where the complainers claim that they made a lodgement but have no documentation. I have no sympathy for them.

But now I wonder. If a First Active employee tries to tell someone that they can't find the money despite hard evidence of its existence.

I told her to call the Financial Services Ombudsman and find out the name of the designated person in First Active. I imagine that she will get her money by return.

Brendan

Had a Mortgage with them a few years back but soon moved due to one error after another on their part. They almost cost me nearly 2,000 Euro in penalities due to their mistakes. This was settled afterward when responsibility was accepted but it was still unnecessary hardship and I can safely say never again.

My brother applied a loan with First Active only this year; the loan was easily approved. A week after they called my brother telling him that his signature was different in other documents. My brother was frustrated by that time, how come his signatures are different? To make the story short he signed them again with the solicitor so the result is loooong time of waiting.

If you’re planning to get them, think very carefully.

Totally agree. I tried to open a joint E-Saving Plus account with them on 25th November but am about to give up. As a registered customer already I needed no proof of identity documentation. They have received our money but nothing credited to account. I rang their customer services but they would not answer any questions unless they spoke to both of us on phone. As my wife works all day this is impossible during office hours. I wrote to them with both our signatures but still nothing. I think they are best avoided.

i had thr misfortune of changing my mortgage to them 2 years ago . it took over a year to get our TRs sorted out,mistakes with acc numbers etc...staff in the sligo branch are useless(and well known for it)would love to change to another bank but im in fear it will be another b@lls dealing with them again!