I used Flemings bank for my business accounts for many years. Later this changed to Cater Allen. Service used to be good until…
Two days ago I call up to to arrange to transfer some money. “Sorry that account has been closed. We sent you a letter 60 days ago”.
Whoa!
Ok… this must be some kind of mistake I think to myself. What about the sterling account?
“That’s closed too”.
Ok… very odd.
Why?
“We don’t have to give you a reason”
I started reading around and it appears I’m not the first to be stung.
Once the shock wore off, it was a case of making sure I could get the money transferred out.
That seems to be going on now (compliments of a £25 fee). But when I think about it, I’m rather happy that this push happened: I’d been meaning to leave Cater Allen for a while. It got to the point where I dreaded dealing with them. Here’s my list of reasons:
- archaic banking interface – logging into https://caterallenonline.co.uk/WebAccess.dll never inspired confidence.
- Transferring Euro to Euro cost £25!
- Transferring Euro to anywhere required I send them a fax (in 2015).
- Slow payments.
- Inbound Euro transactions would get lost – you had to advise the payee to send it to Royal Bank of Scotland with your account details in the payment details. Wo be to the recipient when the payee gets the account details wrong.
I’m really excited about the nascent FinTech revolution. Startup’s software will eat the banks.
Holvi and Number26 look like great banks compared to Cater Allen. Time to check them out.
Should Anyone Ask 