I have held my account with First Direct for over 25 years and in the early days remember thinking how forward looking and efficient a bank it was, that communication and connectivity was excellent. What a shame that it has become a bureaucratic pile of departments that are unable to speak to each other, and incapable of doing something as simple as issuing a bank card. You haven’t just slipped down the rankings from 1st place to 3rd place (Which Magazine), you have lost complete control of what you are doing day to day and that it is customer satisfaction and ability to problem solve for customers that you have given up.