Which? Award 2008 Best Current Account

Legacy_user

The Award goes to . . . . . Cahoot! Here's what Which? is saying:

The 2008 winner Cahoot offers an attractive credit interest rate of 3.65% (3.75% if you don’t have a chequebook) with no minimum monthly pay in and a low authorised overdraft rate of 11.8%. An interest-free overdraft buffer of £100 is an appealing feature.

Which? analysed all the current accounts offered by the 25 providers in this sector to produce a pre-eminent company. Continued strong performance in the annual Which? current account provider customer satisfaction survey helped decide that Cahoot should win. Early results for 2008 indicate that 71% of customers are very satisfied and 94% would recommend the internet bank, giving an overall score of 82%.

Cahoot regularly appears at the top end of our Best Buy tables for current accounts, and provides excellent customer service. Which? has given this award to Cahoot, but we are keeping a close eye on the current account sector in general and the offering from Cahoot in particular.

Several companies have made changes to their accounts in the wake of the High Court ruling against banks on unauthorised overdraft charges making their products less attractive to consumers. Cahoot remains a worthy winner in this category, but it was a close call in comparison to other providers and assumes that the current favourable rates offered to customers by the internet bank will be maintained.

Runners-up
■Nationwide Building Society
■Smile

Neillgb

Ha Ha.

What about the fact that in order to pay cash into the account you need to pay in at the post office. It will arrive in your account either 2,3,4 or five days later, they can't be sure!!!! Apparently this is the Post Offices fault.

As part of the Santander/Abbey group you would have thought you would be able to pay cash in at the Abbey and have account credited on that day subject to banking hours etc. They are quite happy to either not pay interest on credit balances or collect interest on debit balances so why should they? Your money can rot in cyberspace and they love it!!!.

Cahoot credit card is mediocre to say the least, no offers and 19.9% APR.

Then we have the 'flexible loan' with it's obscene interest rate increases in the last 1 and a half years. Over 100% increase!!

You can't transfer 'flexible loan' to a personal loan at a reasonable rate because they don't do them. You are redirected to Abbey, asked for a 'code'
from Cahoot. If you haven't got the 'right' one your are subjected to a bullying sales pitch for loan insurance. The rate of the loan is 19.9% when you eventually get past their sickening sales pitch. "What if you lose your job?", "What would your family do if the worst happened??"!!!

WHICH hold your head in shame and look at the bigger picture!!

AVOID Cahoot like the plague!!!!!

System

Neillgb wrote: »

Ha Ha.

HaHa indeed!

I have a Cahoot credit card and am being charged 12.9%. Not bad.

I also took out a loan some years ago but had the good sense to use the fixed rate version. I am paying only 5.8%

If I need to pay cheques into my account I use the pre-paid envelopes Cahoot supply customers with and the cheque is credited to my account the next day, or failing that the day after. No problem. I've never needed to pay in cash. If that was something I would need to do I wouldn't choose an online account.

I highly recommend Cahoot. Customer service is excellent, as are the interest rates.

Their only problem is that they have always cherry picked their customers.

Go figure.

Neillgb

scgf wrote: »

HaHa indeed!

I have a Cahoot credit card and am being charged 12.9%. Not bad.

I also took out a loan some years ago but had the good sense to use the fixed rate version. I am paying only 5.8%

If I need to pay cheques into my account I use the pre-paid envelopes Cahoot supply customers with and the cheque is credited to my account the next day, or failing that the day after. No problem. I've never needed to pay in cash. If that was something I would need to do I wouldn't choose an online account.

I highly recommend Cahoot. Customer service is excellent, as are the interest rates.

Their only problem is that they have always cherry picked their customers.

Go figure.

Utter drivel.

I note you do not address any of the issues that I, and others, have with Cahoot by concentrating on the current account, which ain't that great anyway, and not their 'services' as a whole. There are better online banking services. Their customer services is average.

You entirely miss the point with regard to cash being credited. And yes I too pay cheques in so am quite aware of the procedure.

Surprised someone who is, obviously, so financially astute would need a loan though? I guess Cahoot are indeed lucky to have the custom of a cherry like yourself....

Go figure.

System

Neillgb wrote: »

Utter drivel.

What part of my post is 'utter drivel'? The only point I didn't really address was paying in cash. This is something I rarely need to do and am quite happy paying into the PO when the need arises.

I have had current accounts with almost every bank going (and gone). The banks I have been with which are online and have no local branches always have an issue with cash deposits and often the account holder has to resort to paying in at a branch of the parent bank - FirstDirect and smile spring to mind. Other banks have an arrangement with a high street bank, like Citibank and LloydsTSB (cash deposits into a Citibank account using LloydsTSB take around 4 days). Secure Trust Bank has an arrangement with Barclays, Bank of Ireland with Lloyds (in the UK). Sometimes where the customer has no local branch - like with the Norwich and Peterborough BS - there is no means at all of paying in cash. I have been a customer of all these banks and in no way does Cahoot feel any different/worse in terms of paying in cash. I find the arrangement with the Post Office most convenient.

An alternative would be to open a high-street bank account just for the purposes of paying in cash - it could easily be a basic bank account - pay in the cash and do a transfer to the online bank.

I have excellent service from Cahoot Customer Services - absolutely nothing to complain about.

I understand the issue you have with their variable rate loan - they did raise the interest rather rather dramatically. Unfortunately any company offering a variable interest rate can do this. I had a credit card where the interest rate shot up from 11% to over 20%. It happens. That's why I took out the Cahoot fixed rate loan.

When I opened my Cahoot account, I read that the bank tends to cherry-pick customers so I really didn't hold out much hope that I'd get an account. Some banks do this - if you have followed the extensive threads on this forum about Citibank you will know that they went from accepting anyone, to being quite choosy. I mean absolutely no disrespect to you by mentioning this - it is useful to know which banks operate this policy.

As regards 'better' online banks, I did not find smile or FirstDirect any better. The Co-op (smile) has this 'aren't we wonderful being so ethical' stance, yet they will screw their customers with charges and an incompetence which defies belief without a second thought. That is not ethical.

Neillgb, who would you choose to give the 2008 Current Account award to?

Neillgb

scgf wrote: »

What part of my post is 'utter drivel'? The only point I didn't really address was paying in cash. This is something I rarely need to do and am quite happy paying into the PO when the need arises.

I have had current accounts with almost every bank going (and gone). The banks I have been with which are online and have no local branches always have an issue with cash deposits and often the account holder has to resort to paying in at a branch of the parent bank - FirstDirect and smile spring to mind. Other banks have an arrangement with a high street bank, like Citibank and LloydsTSB (cash deposits into a Citibank account using LloydsTSB take around 4 days). Secure Trust Bank has an arrangement with Barclays, Bank of Ireland with Lloyds (in the UK). Sometimes where the customer has no local branch - like with the Norwich and Peterborough BS - there is no means at all of paying in cash. I have been a customer of all these banks and in no way does Cahoot feel any different/worse in terms of paying in cash. I find the arrangement with the Post Office most convenient.

An alternative would be to open a high-street bank account just for the purposes of paying in cash - it could easily be a basic bank account - pay in the cash and do a transfer to the online bank.

I have excellent service from Cahoot Customer Services - absolutely nothing to complain about.

I understand the issue you have with their variable rate loan - they did raise the interest rather rather dramatically. Unfortunately any company offering a variable interest rate can do this. I had a credit card where the interest rate shot up from 11% to over 20%. It happens. That's why I took out the Cahoot fixed rate loan.

When I opened my Cahoot account, I read that the bank tends to cherry-pick customers so I really didn't hold out much hope that I'd get an account. Some banks do this - if you have followed the extensive threads on this forum about Citibank you will know that they went from accepting anyone, to being quite choosy. I mean absolutely no disrespect to you by mentioning this - it is useful to know which banks operate this policy.

As regards 'better' online banks, I did not find smile or FirstDirect any better. The Co-op (smile) has this 'aren't we wonderful being so ethical' stance, yet they will screw their customers with charges and an incompetence which defies belief without a second thought. That is not ethical.

Neillgb, who would you choose to give the 2008 Current Account award to?

I am afraid that any bank that cannot offer the facility to have cash credited on a set date cannot be considered the 'best' irrespective of whether they are an Internet bank or not. How can it be fair that withdrawals are deducted on the day and credits will arrive sometime between 2 and 5 days later? I have raised this point with Cahoot on several occasions and they simply do not have an answer. The truth is that they are concerned that they would struggle to justify themselves in court, 'terms and conditions' and 'different system' would not wash.

Then there is the security issue,

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/3984845.stm

please note the less than satisfied customers towards the end of the article.

With regard to the WHICH item i was wondering where they got their customers to survey from. Not me. I wonder how many customers with flexible loans were questioned...............

So to summarise we have a 'bank' that cannot credit cash to a customers account on the day. We have a 'bank' that cannot give customers a set date for cash to be credited. We have a 'bank' with security issues in the past that they tried to keep quiet. We have a bank that does not offer personal loans and deliberately exploits the fact with customers by trying to tie them into their flexible loan. The flexible loan rate has more than doubled in a year and a half.

How many of the above facts were mentioned in the WHICH report I wonder?

I am assuming you mean online bank. I will not be using a online bank when I have rid myself of Cahoot so I would not recommend one. If Cahoot are truly No.1 then God help the customers of other online banks.

Neillgb

Alx_B wrote: »

I suspect that Which would say they were only looking at current account *shrug* Still the whole business with debits appearing same day, while credits take a variable time to clear, is pretty darn shoddy IMHO.
I'm not one for the nanny state, but given that everything's automated these days it's pretty hard to justify credits taking so long to hit our accounts; Definitely a case where the govt should step in and kick some banker behind!

Exactly.

Clearance issues fundamentaly unfair.

WHICH failed to provide a balanced report on Cahoot.

harz99

Neillgb wrote: »

I am assuming you mean online bank. I will not be using a online bank when I have rid myself of Cahoot so I would not recommend one. If Cahoot are truly No.1 then God help the customers of other online banks.

I understand perfectly now that you have declared an interest that you are a disgruntled Cahoot customer.

I for one have been a happy customer of Cahoot for many years, and my reason for joining was actually that I could use the Post Office for "hard" transactions, seeing that I lived in an area with few bank branches for that type of transaction.

Not everybody lives within easy reach of a High Street branch.

Neillgb

harz99 wrote: »

I understand perfectly now that you have declared an interest that you are a disgruntled Cahoot customer.

I for one have been a happy customer of Cahoot for many years, and my reason for joining was actually that I could use the Post Office for "hard" transactions, seeing that I lived in an area with few bank branches for that type of transaction.

Not everybody lives within easy reach of a High Street branch.

Yes. To be fair the post office can be convenient although it does not concern me.

There is still no excuse for the inability of Cahoot to give a specific time for funds to reach your account. 2 to 5 working days, it varies, is no longer acceptable with technology available in this day and age. Why can they not do it? They could if they wanted to of course but it doesn't suit them so they don't care. They willl of course manage to debit funds from your account on the day you withdraw it.

You can be sure that if it was costing them interest they would sort it out. I wonder how much longer the FSA will allow this sort of behaviour. I have today written to them. I will let you know how I get on.

Satscene

I can`t comment on Cahoot, but as SMILE has been mentioned i must say they have been excellent for me. I frequently deposit cash when i`m out and about at any PO and it`s instantly credited to my account.... i don`t mean in a day or two it really is instantly. Foreign Transfers are handled efficiently and i noticed a bounced cheque i had didn`t entail any charge at all.
Only gripe i could make is their shabby interest rates, but then again that`s what i use Icesave and Kaupthing for....

System

Abbey are part of the group which has been involved in setting up 'instant transfers' but they have specifically said that they won't be effecting the instant transfers for some months.

I think the problem is what I said before - online banks have an issue with paying in cash. It is unfair to single out Cahoot - debit-card transactions don't appear any faster than with any other bank I have been with, but because of their online status cash does take between three and four days to reach the account. If you need to pay cash into your account, an online bank is not for you. I don't understand where Alx B says that debits appear instantly - the only debits that do this are same as with any bank, and that is atm withdrawals. Use your debit card in a shop or online and the transaction appears a couple of days later.

Do people really need to pay in cash, though? I can't even remember the last time I needed to. I tend to keep any cash which comes in my direction and spend it rather than withdrawing out from an atm.

IMO those with an axe to grind are spreading FUD to back-up their case. Every bank has its contingent of disgruntled customers. As a Cahoot customer for several years, I highly recommend them and hope the distinctive brand flourishes.