Cahoot log in problem....

Doc_N

bendipa wrote: »

How long have you been with them for? And what makes them superior to other online banks? What is their customer service like?

Been with First Direct for almost 20 years now. It's a subsidiary of HSBC and started life as a telephone bank - the first, as I recall. Telephone banking still very much an option, but most customers probably use it online.

It's the customer service that makes them superior. I've never known the website to be down, and it works extremely well - always. Faster Payments - no problem: payments made and received within seconds. If you phone them you'll get through within seconds most of the time, and they can carry out any transaction you want them to - even arrange a loan or a mortgage.

No interest on the current account, but cahoot are paying virtually nothing too. Banking only free, though, if you pay in at least £1,500 every month, or maintain an average monthly balance of £1,500, or hold certain additional products.

darren72

Doc_N wrote: »

Faster Payments - no problem: payments made and received within seconds. If you phone them you'll get through within seconds most of the time, and they can carry out any transaction you want them to - even arrange a loan or a mortgage.

Is this limited to certain sized transactions ?

Thanks

Doc_N

darren72 wrote: »

Is this limited to certain sized transactions ?

Thanks

There is a limit, but it's a decent one - £10,000. Unlike A+L, for example, which is an impractical £250. And cahoot (also Santander) which doesn't even deal with FP at all! These are not banks - they're joke banks.

Rael

I have ditched Cahoot as they've become unbelievably crappy over the last year. Poor rates, poor selection of accounts and poor website options. Avoid.

tdodd

Is Cahoot down again, but nobody cares? I've been trying to log on since around 07:00 on Sunday morning and the logon page will not display. So it's now 24 hours and counting with no access to my account. I emailed them and have had no reply. To my surprise I can't find any sign of anyone else having problems currently, with a Google search, so I wonder if it's just me.

I've also recently experienced incredibly poor service from Alliance and Leicester - errors running the account; failure to reply to secure messages promptly; getting put through to a closed department; complaint not dealt with properly. What a shambles!

I've been with Cahoot for many years, and A&L for around 18 months, but at this rate I won't be with them very much longer at all. I can't help but have my suspicions that under the umbrella of "Santander" if you have a problem the response will be "Manana".

How are things for everyone else?

brook2jack

Can't log in either and can find no info anywhere as to how long problem might be. Last nights message was about upgrade lasting 5 mins this morning not even that.

whizzocki

Same for me, tdodd. This is infuriating. I too have been with cahoot for many years, but this kind of thing is making me think about switching. The problem is that all banks are the same: they care only about their bottom line, and how much they can fleece their customers for. I have been a customer of First Direct in the past, but to be honest they were worse. Service was appalling.

All I ask from my online banking is that it's online. To be down for 24 hours with NO explanation is outrageous.

tdodd

I do understand that thing go wrong, hopefully very rarely, but it's how those problems are dealt with that separates the good from the bad. Managing customer expectations is crucial to success. Underpromise and overdeliver and you will have happy customers. Do the reverse at your peril. That "5 minutes" message was on display all day yesterday. Today things have not improved, but at least they are telling no lies and giving no false hope. Still, a factual statement about what is going on would surely help. Right now the only impression they've created is that they are a bunch of clueless idiots, with not the first idea about customer service, and no longer worthy of my custom.

All it needed was a properly phrased message about the problems, and an honest forecast of when service would be resumed - none of that "5 minutes" boilerplate crap. Had they done that I would be no more than disappointed. As it is I'm nothing less than annoyed, irritated, angered.

Doc_N

Just tried - same for me. Not that it's any problem, with just a few pence left in the account.

Cahoot used to be fine until Santander got their greedy sticky hands on it, and now they don't give a monkey's how bad it gets. Same goes for Alliance and Leicester, which they've also fouled up. This poll, and the discussion, says it all:

http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/poll/02-08-2010/which-is-the-worst-customer-service-bank

I've moved all my day-to-day banking back to First Direct. They continue to be absolutely faultless in my experience. Poor interest rates, but you can remedy that by keeping larger sums elsewhere.

brook2jack

Working now.