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I've written a review in the past slamming Revolut but it is only fair to say what is good too.

When everything works, it is fantastic. My other review addresses the weaknesses.

Here I just want to praise something that I have found excellent and better than other banks. I have been allowed to get a second physical card as a back up even though my current card is working perfectly. I have not activated the second card as I do not need it but it is great to know that if I ever lose the card or an ATM overseas swallows it again, I can easily activate the back up.

I also love the disposable cards which I use for most online purchases.

So, despite my complaints in the past and the future, there are things I very much like.

Onwards and upwards hopefully...!

I wanted a new account that I would trust more than others. I kept reading about how amazing the customer service was at First Direct etc.

The problems started as soon as I opened the account. Firstly, it seemed to take a week to open an app account. Why? Other app accounts take minutes!I needed an account that would work through app messaging as I travel a lot. I was shocked to find their app chat did not work for me. Despite having the correct Android version, I decided it must be the phone as the chat started working when I got a new phone. A couple of months later and it stopped working on the new phone. How can I have an account with a bank if I cannot communicate? Yes, I can call in the UK but I needed to be able to communicate from overseas if necessary.

It is also the only bank I've come across that is dumb enough to send postal letters with the bank logo on the envelope just in case postal thieves and scammers needed extra help identifying bank letters!

Dealing with their agents was not great either. Definitely no better than my other bank experiences.
I have experienced digital app banks and First Direct's is child's play in comparison. (That's an insult to children.) In fact, it is even worse than the apps produced by the traditional in-person branch banks I've used.

I was so put off by the experience, I did not transfer much cash there as they failed the test.

In addition to this, this supposed digital bank cannot stop sending postal letters even though I've requested all correspondence by email or in the app. It is a digital app after all. They'll say things like 'we have to by law'. No you don't, the other digital apps or online accounts have sent zero post as THEY ARE DIGITAL IN 2025.

When I closed my account, they said it would take about a week to close. Honestly, it's pathetic compared to other banks. I checked my emails today to find an email from them reading:

'In line with our guidelines, we now need to send your transaction history when you close an account.

Attached you’ll find a PDF file which shows this for account ending: ****. To help keep your information safe, the file’s protected with a password which we’ll send you in the post.

Please do not share personal information with anyone you don’t know or trust.'

I'm away. So now they've sent this data to who knows who as anyone can collect the post in a shared building which is why I said multiple times not to send it and they confirmed it would mostly be via the app or emails apart from letters legally required to be sent. (I don't believe a legal requirement exists as my app banks have never sent physical post.)

Why do I need the transaction history? I'd ask for it if I wanted it! I bet you've sent it in an envelope with the First Direct logo on too!

Absolute moronic train crash of a bank.

I'm not sure my data is safe with these morons.

I'd say bank elsewhere. Everywhere else appears to be better in my experience.

02/09/2025
**A sentence was edited in the review.**

In response to First Direct's response today:
Any customer (ex or current) knows full well there is no point in contacting your customer service as it has proven useless which is why I closed my account. The damage has been done. Can you unsend all the unwanted post with your logo all over it? Can you create a functioning app? Bye and good riddance First Direct! And, no, I absolutely do not trust you with my data!

I have flown with Air Arabia twice before but will think carefully next time. While the flight staff and the actual flight were great and easily worth 4 stars (not 5 stars if paying for meals etc), the other experiences have been terrible. Firstly, when I booked the ticket for a next day flight, I didn't realise they charged me for travel insurance. I didn't see any info about insurance until I saw it on the receipt break down. Realising this 2 or 3 hours after booking, I contacted the live chat customer support and asked for a refund as I had never wanted or agreed to insurance. The agent seemed very helpful, apologised and put in a request to rectify this. This was on the 16th June 2025. Almost a month later I've heard nothing despite repeated follow ups. Not only have I received no acknowledgment or refund, they went on to share my data with the insurance company tuneprotect.com without my permission! I am now receiving emails from them too. This is a breach of personal data which angers me greatly. What data have you given them?
Secondly, again on the topic of personal data protection, after hours of transit in Sharjah Airport, I went to the gate to board. Usually our passports and boarding passes are checked at boarding etc. This is normal. However, this time they were scanning some passports with a mobile phone. Not every passport. (Why some only?) I was really shocked to see them using a mobile phone. Mobile phones are NOT safe for personal data. I raised this as an issue and the supervisor told me they use a closed app called ReadID. When did any of us give our permission to share our data with a third party app or place our passports on mobile phones?
These 2 things have put me off ever flying with Air Arabia again.
I'm still annoyed about it almost a month later and am tired of receiving emails that say something along the lines of 'I have sent your issue to the relevant department' etc. This is a chocolate teapot response. Useless. Where is my money?!!!

Scammers. Don't go near them.

Top quality flight and service from Sofia to Rome. The flight itself deserves 5 stars. However, the check in agent loses 1 star. I was later told the check in agent was from Swissport. She truly let Bulgaria Air down. I arrived at my transit destination really annoyed because of her.
I asked for an aisle seat if possible so she deliberately gave me a window seat when the plane was not full. I asked if she could request a vegetarian option on the first flight as I was only able to book it online for the second flight. She told me there was no food on the first flight. Worried I'd be hungry, I paid airport prices for breakfast before flying only to then be served breakfast on the flight!
My flight involved a 10 hour stop over so I asked her if I needed to wait in the transit area or go out and return. She said 'I don't know, I just give you a ticket.' Every simple question I asked was met with her turning to make sneery comments in Bulgarian to her colleague. I don't need to speak her language to understand this - body language and tone is enough.
I was given no information about transit and only found out that I actually needed to clear immigration in transit by going to a desk to ask how to complain about her. I could have missed my connecting flight.
As a customer, you pay for a ticket so you expect the service to match. If Swissport carries on like this, it is no wonder Bulgaria Air gets low scores in reviews. I'd recommend getting rid of them!

I thought the staff were truly fantastic. I did a long haul flight and think the customer service was unbeatable. However, the vegetarian option meal was very poor - pasta and tomato puree (not even sauce) with a bread roll? Also, I'd booked a long haul flight from an eastern European country to Asia via Rome. While I paid ITA Airways for the ticket, the first flight was with a different airline. This was fine as they were also very good. However, the way I was treated by their check in agent, Swissport, I believe was the worst I've ever experienced and I travel a lot.
I asked for an aisle seat if possible so she deliberately gave me a window seat when the plane was not full. I asked if she could request a vegetarian option on the first flight as I was only able to book it online for the second flight. She told me there was no food on the first flight. Worried I'd be hungry, I paid airport prices for breakfast before flying only to then be served breakfast on the flight!
My flight involved a 10 hour stop over so I asked her if I needed to wait in the transit area or go out and return. She said 'I don't know, I just give you a ticket.' Every simple question I asked was met with her turning to make sneery comments in her language to her colleague. I don't need to speak her language to understand this - body language and tone is enough.
I would have given the airline 5 stars but 4 is enough with these considerations. As a customer, you pay for a ticket so you expect the service to match. If Swissport carry on like this, it is no wonder you are getting low scores in reviews. I'd recommend getting rid of them!
Would I fly with you again? 100% but I'd check there was no Swissport involvement first!

Terrible. I asked the agent at check in for an aisle seat so she deliberately gave me a window seat. The plane was not full. I asked her for a vegetarian option on the first flight out of 2 as I couldn't see it online and she said there was no food. I then went and paid to eat at the airport (airport prices!) believing there would be no meal only to receive breakfast as soon as the flight took off. I asked if I needed to stay in transit between the 2 flights or go out and return as the time between was very long. She said 'I don't know, I just give you a ticket.') I went to try to complain about her on arrival after the first flight and by doing so found out that I had to go and clear immigration in transit. I would have had no idea if I hadn't attempted to complain about her as there was zero information. And, I was unable to submit a complaint as there was no Swissport desk.
Each question I asked was met with her turning to her co-worker and sneering/making comments in her language. You don't have to speak another language to understand this! Awful experience.

I wish I could give zero stars. As others have said here, they seem like scammers. If only I'd read these reviews before purchasing.
I bought two identical phones online a few weeks ago as I needed two. While setting up the first, it froze on a formatting screen. I couldn't turn it off, reset, nothing. It remained like that the entire day. HMD Support were trying to get me to speak to the repair centre. I said no thank you and initiated a return. I said I was returning both as I wasn't going to bother opening the second if the first was faulty and caused me hours of stress.
I returned the phones together in the box they came in etc. A few days after they were received by HMD, I was refunded 1 phone only with no explanation. Since they received both within the 14 and 30 day grace periods, there should be a full refund for both phones.
I have now been chasing this up day after day, multiple times a day, via live chat/email and telephone to no avail. HMD's support stops once they get your money. Don't be fooled by the pretty website and pre-purchase support. Like scammers, if it seems too good to be true, it most certainly is.
I wanted European and I got Indian call centres of the worst kind (they cannot hear anything so you have to repeat everything ten times). I have been talked around in circles with script words like 'relevant department' and promises (lies) of a manager call back etc for days. Apparently there is a case number but despite asking via chat, email and phone for an expected update timeline, they keep saying 'soon'. I am still clueless. Does soon mean 1 day or 365 days? Trying to contact their office location in London (on Companies House) also got me nowhere but it appears to be a coworking space. Very strange. Is it just an address for operation appearances? Something very very suspicious about it all.
Called Nokia and of course they say nothing to do with them anymore. Shame, they sounded nice. I think HMD will destroy Nokia's reputation.
My advice to you - DO NOT GO NEAR THEM. EVER.
Perhaps we should all get together and go to the press?

Update: After about 1 week of multiple calls a day to the call centre, I eventually got a refund by threatening to go to the press. Not nice being pushed to behave like that but I totally intended to raise concerns about HMD in the press. Getting that refund was pretty much a full-time job for 1 week. I almost let the money go for my sanity but the principle of the situation kept me on it. Steer clear!

Been using Moonpig for years. It's fab, efficient and easy. One of the only functioning services in the UK these days! :-)

One thing that could be looked at, however, is the change to text alignment. Yesterday I was unable to align left. Alignment options used to be available. No biggie but centred text doesn't always look good.

Thank you for the £50 received today!

I have always had good experiences dealing with Nationwide. Much better than my other bank.

They deserve minus 5 stars today! Awful!

I have tried to get through to HMRC 6 or 7 times today. Each time they put me through the torture of the bot options that can never recognise what I am saying or choosing. Each time they have cut me off saying they were too busy today! I'm busy too ffs!!! At least you're getting paid out of our tax money to answer phones. What do I earn wasting my time calling you?

Why can't you cut people off within the first minute rather than making them get to 10-15 minutes and suffer your horrendous bot torture? Probably 1.5-2 hours or my life wasted on you today!

No wonder fraud is out of control in this country - just look at the collapsing systems! I keep reading that HMRC are sending out zillions of letters even when people ask them not to or write return to sender. They're literally handing fraudsters data on a plate.

Update 09/05/2025

After the above happened for 2 days in a row, I completed a complaint online. After doing so, it said I would hear back by my chosen communication method within 30 days. Almost 30 days and nothing. Joke organisation.

16/7/2025
Update: Never heard back!

I rely on Revolut as I am travelling a lot. When it works, I'm very happy with it. Unfortunately when you need support, it is dire. Among all services I use or have ever used which are many, the 3 with the worst customer support to date are Microsoft, Booking.com and now Revolut. The first 2 do not hold my money, however, which kind of makes Revolut worse. After 2 days, 4 agents, hours of time, same questions and circles and still no actual help from support, I have sent the complaints team a complaint. Honestly, what is the point in the agents? They're beyond useless! If you want long-term customers, you need to sort this out as I'm not staying long term if the support is not there.

6/11/2024
In response to your response - you will see that I gave reasons I could not follow the steps to different agents. You want me to clear the cache and log in again. Last time I did this, I was logged out for days and, despite you having my biometrics, your photo identication process failed to accept me as me and it turned into a nightmare to get back into my own account. I will never risk this again. Therefore, your tech team need to sort this out so that customers are never placed in these situations.

If you check all the 1 star reviews you are receiving, perhaps try fixing the systems rather than justifying the mess!

I am beginning to wonder if the positive reviews are fake since National Express has become a cut-throat rip-off operation. Just look up their profits for 2022...£145 million, up 367% on 2021 according to what I read. Now tell me they care about us citizens who are struggling financially.... How do they sleep at night?

We should all go to other providers. Trains and flights now offering cheaper options than Nat Ex. Or other bus companies.

I am outraged that I've had to pay £36 to get from Liverpool to Glasgow. The bus isn't even direct. I have to change at Manchester with 4 hours between coaches. This kind of journey was way cheaper before. It seems that National Express is profiteering at the expense of struggling citizens just like the supermarkets and banks. I'll try other operators next time.

13/7/2023
In response to your response: no, it doesn't help and it's in no way believable. Another provider was offering the same journey for £15 on the same day but I didn't realise till after I allowed you to rob me. I'll go with them next time.
And, the 4 hour stopover involved sitting at a station with no open shops or cafes.

Terrible. I feel scammed and will go out of my way to find other operators going forward.

As a Genius Level 3 member, I feel the service is going downhill for the following reasons:

1) Many prices quoted are cheaper on other sites even after extra discounts for membership level. (I don't care about your price match offer.)

2) Trying to contact customer service is a nightmare. When you eventually find a way to contact them, they are useless. Contact numbers, live chat or a direct email should be clearly stated on the website and in customer accounts. The help centre does not show these.

3) I can no longer leave reviews anonomously which was important to me as I don't want my name on the internet. When I wasted an hour of my life asking customer service to sort this out, they told me to send them a screenshot via a booking. Errr no, I'm not wasting any more of my life. You do the work since you're taking money for it!

4) Last week I went to 2 hostels via Booking.com that did not provide drinking water let alone kitchens. Is this permitted? Charging 24 euros a night for a dorm bed when there is no access to kitchen facilities or drinking water? Is this legal?

I might start using other booking apps as not impressed lately.

I originally posted this review on 24th Feb but Go Outdoors got Trustpilot to remove it. No wonder they've got over 4 stars if they get the bad reviews removed!....

Don't buy from this company unless you want your data shared everywhere!

I would not give any stars at all if possible. My experience has been terrible. Firstly, I did not know that Go Outdoors were part of JD Sports whose user details were compromised in a huge hacking scandal some weeks ago.
After ordering a pair of walking boots, I quickly realised they were part of JD Sports and checked the privacy policy. Realising they give data away all over the shop, I quickly contacted their data privacy controller to exercise my data protection rights. I was informed they keep all data for 6 years. After this, I wrote multiple times to the data protection email (privacy.support at jdplc.com) and never received an adequate response. I immediately asked for my data to be removed and made it clear they had zero consents from me. Since then I spoke to someone on the phone at customer service, as the data privacy specialist is clearly a robot, to try and sort it. He put in a request for data erasure but said it may take time. I have just found out that Go Outdoors sent marketing mail to my friend's house a week after I spoke to customer service and weeks after sending these emails to the data protection department. My friend's home is my billing address as I am one of the many hidden homeless in this country. Not only are the JD Sports group ignoring data protection law, they are now interfering with my ability to use my friend's address for my bank. My friend is less than happy to be receiving junk mail for me and I am furious about it. How many companies now have access to billing information which isn't even my home?! The boots were sent to where I am, why not use this address if you have to use one!!

So, let me get this straight...I pay you for boots and you sell off all my details, ignore my data rights requests and potentially destroy my chances of having a postal address?!

I do not recommend you ever buy anything from this awful company.

To add insult to inury, the boots arrived scuffed and are extremely uncomfortable so I can't really wear them. JD Sports won't care though as I think they're more interested in what they can do with your data than footwear!

They obviously do not understand human psychology. Their approach has now made me so angry, I will never buy from them again and I will warn everyone I know about their true intentions.

Date of experience: 24 February 2023

I always liked Trustpilot till they removed a review today. What can you do when a company is violating your rights and ignoring your attempts to address it directly with them? I know...Write a review! That's what I did but Trustpilot has removed it which means it is enabling this company to violate my rights.

Don't buy from this company unless you want your data shared everywhere!

I would not give any stars at all if possible. My experience has been terrible. Firstly, I did not know that Go Outdoors were part of JD Sports whose user details were compromised in a huge hacking scandal some weeks ago.
After ordering a pair of walking boots, I quickly realised they were part of JD Sports and checked the privacy policy. Realising they give data away all over the shop, I quickly contacted their data privacy controller to exercise my data protection rights. I was informed they keep all data for 6 years. After this, I wrote multiple times to the data protection email (privacy.support at jdplc.com) and never received an adequate response. I immediately asked for my data to be removed and made it clear they had zero consents from me. Since then I spoke to someone on the phone at customer service, as the data privacy specialist is clearly a robot, to try and sort it. He put in a request for data erasure but said it may take time. I have just found out that Go Outdoors sent marketing mail to my friend's house a week after I spoke to customer service and weeks after sending these emails to the data protection department. My friend's home is my billing address as I am one of the many hidden homeless in this country. Not only are the JD Sports group ignoring data protection law, they are now interfering with my ability to use my friend's address for my bank. My friend is less than happy to be receiving junk mail for me and I am furious about it. How many companies now have access to billing information which isn't even my home?! The boots were sent to where I am, why not use this address if you have to use one!!

So, let me get this straight...I pay you for boots and you sell off all my details, ignore my data rights requests and potentially destroy my chances of having a postal address?!

I do not recommend you ever buy anything from this awful company.

To add insult to inury, the boots arrived scuffed and are extremely uncomfortable so I can't really wear them. JD Sports won't care though as I think they're more interested in what they can do with your data than footwear!

They obviously do not understand human psychology. Their approach has now made me so angry, I will never buy from them again and I will warn everyone I know about their true intentions.

I have used this service 5-6 times. It's excellent.