first direct outages: history, compensation and how to check if first direct is down

first direct is part of HSBC UK, which reported 32 incidents and 176 hours of disruption between January 2023 and January 2025 but named first direct in only one: 3 hours on 25 April 2023, which hit 122,238 customers. On payday, 28 February 2025, about 60,000 first direct customers had payments fail at the first attempt over just over 2 hours. It was also hit by HSBC's outage of about 5 hours on 27 August 2025 and had an online banking outage on 30 September 2025.

Is first direct down right now?

This page is a record, not a live monitor, so it cannot tell you whether first direct is working this minute. first direct's own service status page is the place to check. first direct shows the status of mobile, online and telephone banking, chat, cards, payments and its website on its service updates page. It told the Treasury Committee that during incidents it also adds a banner to its website and posts on social media, including on X as @firstdirect.

During an outage your money stays in your account: outages stop you reaching it or paying with it, they do not remove it. The Financial Ombudsman Service lists scams that exploit outages among the complaints it sees, so be wary of calls or messages offering help during one.

Major first direct outages

30 September 2025: Online banking outage

On the morning of Tuesday 30 September 2025, near the end-of-month payday, first direct online banking showed "Online Banking Currently Unavailable". first direct posted on X: "We understand some customers are having issues accessing banking services right now." At 11:40am it said "Services are now recovering". It did not give a cause.

27 August 2025: App and online banking outage

first direct customers were hit by the outage of about 5 hours that took down HSBC UK app and online banking on 27 August 2025. Some first direct customers saw an "err03" error code.

28 February 2025: Payday payment failures

On Friday 28 February 2025, a payday, some first direct customers could not make payments through online and mobile banking between 7:01am and 9:11am. Other functions and telephone payments worked. first direct told the Treasury Committee the cause was a slowdown in its API cluster because "too much system memory was being used", fixed by adding capacity at 9:11am. About 58,000 mobile and 2,000 desktop customers had a payment fail at the first attempt, and about 90% succeeded when they tried again. first direct said the problem was unrelated to other banks' outages that day. Chat waits rose to 120 minutes against a 5-minute target. It received 62 complaints and paid £1,250 in compensation.

25 April 2023: Software release fault

On 25 April 2023 first direct customers had degraded service and errors on web and mobile banking for 3 hours. HSBC UK told the Treasury Committee the cause was "The release of incompatible software to the banking platform" and that 122,238 customers were affected. It is the only incident in HSBC UK's list that names first direct.

19 December 2019: Two pre-Christmas faults

first direct customers were hit by the two unconnected faults that disrupted HSBC online and mobile banking on 19 and 20 December 2019. The first began just before 8pm on Thursday 19 December and was fixed about three hours later. The second struck overnight and caused intermittent problems on Friday.

Incidents first direct reported to the FCA

Since August 2018 every bank or brand with at least 70,000 personal current accounts, or 15,000 business current accounts, must publish each quarter how many major operational or security incidents it reported to the FCA: the total, and how many hit telephone, mobile and internet banking, for the latest quarter and the latest 12 months.

What first direct told Parliament

first direct is a division of HSBC UK Bank plc, and its figures are inside HSBC UK's. HSBC UK told the Treasury Committee of 32 incidents totalling 176 hours between 1 January 2023 and 31 January 2025. Apart from 25 April 2023, the letter does not break incidents down by brand.

On 8 April 2025 the Treasury Committee Chair wrote to HSBC UK about the IT failures of Friday 28 February 2025.

In its reply of 30 April 2025, first direct said about 58,000 mobile and 2,000 desktop customers had a payment fail on 28 February 2025, about 5% of its 1.2 million digitally active customers. It received 62 complaints and paid £1,250.

Has first direct paid compensation for outages?

first direct paid £1,250 in compensation for the 28 February 2025 payment failures, and credited 90% of complainants within 1 day. It did not contact affected customers proactively.

HSBC UK, whose figures include first direct, told the Treasury Committee it paid £170,251 for its 24 November 2023 outage and £62,446 for other incidents between January 2023 and January 2025, £232,697 in total.

After the December 2019 faults that hit HSBC and first direct, City AM reported that HSBC committed to refund any overdraft fees customers incurred because they could not reach their accounts.

Has first direct been fined for IT failures?

We found no FCA or PRA fine against first direct, or HSBC UK Bank plc of which it is a division, for an IT or operational-resilience failure.

Your rights if an outage costs you money

No law sets a fixed amount of compensation for a bank outage. What you are owed depends on what it cost you, and banks decide most cases themselves.

If a payment you made fails or goes wrong, your bank must refund it without undue delay and put your account back as it would have been, and it is liable for any charges and interest you have to pay as a result. It is not liable if the failure was caused by abnormal and unforeseeable circumstances beyond its control that could not have been avoided.

The Financial Ombudsman Service says that when it upholds an outage complaint it can tell the bank to refund extra costs caused by the outage, such as overdraft or late-payment charges, and to pay for distress and inconvenience. In one case it published, a bank offered £25 after a multi-day outage and the Ombudsman told it to pay a further £75.

Complain to the bank first. For a complaint about a payment it must reply in full within 15 business days, or 35 in exceptional cases; for other complaints within eight weeks. You then have six months from its final response to take the complaint to the Financial Ombudsman Service, free of charge.

Frequently asked questions

Is first direct down today?

This page records past outages and cannot show first direct's status this minute. first direct publishes live status at https://www.firstdirect.com/help/service-updates/. first direct shows the status of mobile, online and telephone banking, chat, cards, payments and its website on its service updates page. It told the Treasury Committee that during incidents it also adds a banner to its website and posts on social media, including on X as @firstdirect.

How often does first direct have outages?

first direct is part of HSBC UK, which reported 32 incidents and 176 hours of disruption between January 2023 and January 2025 but named first direct in only one: 3 hours on 25 April 2023, which hit 122,238 customers. On payday, 28 February 2025, about 60,000 first direct customers had payments fail at the first attempt over just over 2 hours. It was also hit by HSBC's outage of about 5 hours on 27 August 2025 and had an online banking outage on 30 September 2025. In its latest published figures first direct reported 1 major operational or security incident to the FCA in the 12 months to 30 June 2026.

When was the last big first direct outage?

30 September 2025: On the morning of Tuesday 30 September 2025, near the end-of-month payday, first direct online banking showed "Online Banking Currently Unavailable". first direct posted on X: "We understand some customers are having issues accessing banking services right now." At 11:40am it said "Services are now recovering". It did not give a cause.

Will first direct compensate me for an outage?

first direct paid £1,250 in compensation for the 28 February 2025 payment failures, and credited 90% of complainants within 1 day. It did not contact affected customers proactively. If a payment failed or went wrong, your bank must refund it and is liable for the charges and interest that result. Beyond that there is no fixed amount: complain to the bank, and if you are unhappy with its answer the Financial Ombudsman Service can order it to refund costs and pay for distress and inconvenience.

How do I complain about a first direct outage?

Complain to the bank first and keep evidence of any costs, such as late-payment or overdraft charges. It has 15 business days to answer a complaint about a payment and eight weeks for others. You then have six months to take it to the Financial Ombudsman Service, which is free.

More: first direct's credit rating and safety record, outage figures for every UK bank, and outage histories for HSBC UK, Bank of Scotland, Barclays, Chase UK, Halifax, Lloyds Bank, Metro Bank, Monzo.