Co-op bank questions

deanh1981

Hi I went BR on 31st Jan

I set up my cashminder account before hand and have just started to use it

I just have a question about the account...

I had £400 in there and over the last few days have paid for tv licence,petrol twice, mcdonalds and drawn £10 for a haircut

my account is only showing that the cash withdrawal has comeout,nothing else still says balance 390,available 390

any other bank account ive ever had shows any activity straight away online - does coop normally take a few days to show - as this could get me in trouble

Ineedaname

The Co-op can be a bit slow to update online, mini statements from a cashpoint should be up to date though.

I use Microsoft Money to keep track of everything, that way I know exactly how much I have available at any time and just mark transactions Reconciled once they show up in my Co-op account. There are various free spreadsheets and home accounting packages available on the web, or you can buy Money or Quicken quite cheap second hand on eBay.

Florence22

You could give the Co Op a call and sign up for their text balance service - it's real time and apparently for some, included in their provider's text bundles

dojoman

I have found that it usually takes 2 days for a transaction to show up in my account. I use Quicken so that time delay is not a problem, I have also used homebank which is free and is really good.

http://homebank.free.fr/

System

To be blunt, Co Op's systems are prehistoric.

You cannot trust any of the balances given by their online banking system.

You can look at your online transactions and see that you went overdrawn on a particular day (to your surprise!), but it's actually their system re-ordering the transactions during a day (so all the withdrawals go appear before the credits).

Transactions over a weekend period will often change their transaction date sporadically on your online statement (we saw this happen 3 times in a row last weekend on my wife's account).

If a Direct Debit is going out on Wednesday, the money must be in your account on TUESDAY. Or 9pm Tuesday depending which call centre person you talk to. If not and you don't have enough money in, you'll get charged.

As an account it 'works' but you really have to be on the ball yourself with outgoings, especially if you often run the account close to empty.

AdvicePlease

Just me who has never had any problems with them then! I find them absolutely excellent, transactions using a debit card take a couple of days to come out of my account but that was the same with my Nationwide account when I banked with them? Base one authorisations dont tend to show (where a transaction has not been taken from your account yet) but it wont let you use your debit card and spend the money again so that doesnt bother me?

System

Mind you, nothing is as bad as the horrible thing Alliance & Leicester / Santander has become!

sniggings

maybe the TV ws slow in processing the payment?

alastairq

Hi...the OP [and others?] may find it useful to open an additional Co-op Cashminder account.

Use this for all direct debits, standing orders, online bill payments, in fact,,anything that has to come out month on month, and must be paid!

Then, when income arrives into one's 'running' account [the other one, not the 'bills' one]...then transfer [[online, instant] sufficient to cover the bills, etc to the new account.......ASAP.

This then leaves the original account [the 'running' account] for stuff like petrol, food, and other as-and-when needs...ie what you spend straight out of the purse?

thus, the time lag [which is about to get even shorter, according to Co-op]....really doesn't matter, the money is already accounted for!

[Whatever is left over at month-end [pay day, in other words] can then be transferred to a savings account, starting afresh each payday. Works for me!]

Oh, and I use the savings account a bit like a credit card......if/when my running account looks like it's going to be a bit low too soon [like, after an Amazon raid, or Xmas, etc]...then I do an online instant transfer from the 'savings' account [SMartsaver]...to get the running account back into three figures....just in case of that unforeseen emergency? Again, whatever is left, month-end, goes back into savings account........

I can make cashiers dizzy, me!



oooops, further edit.........you can have as many [basic] bank accounts as you like whilst BR...savings accounts too...just tell the Co-op adviser beforehand that you're BR/ex-BR, so they can instantly appeal the computer's decision

Maizy

Hi Deanh

After banking with a really good bank for some time, I found it hard at first getting used to the Co-ops quirky ways. Their on line system is not real time and usually only cash withdrawals show straight away. Its vital to write down what you have used switch for and keep a track that way.

Better still, do as we do and use CASH for everything if possible, that way you have no chance of spending money that isn't there to be spent risking the said switch payment leaving the account to take you into an unauthorised OD balance. We find cash works great for us especially now we know we only have so much to spend on any given week.

If ever you need to know anything in more detail give them a quick call they can see pending switch transactions. I have a bill payment i set up yesterday for yesterday which still hasn't left the account, there may be a limit which can delay payments leaving. It should leave today and will show it was paid yesterday, its still pending and its important to be aware of such things. With our previous bank, any payment would have left straight away, after all we are authorising the payment. Aside from that they have been a fantastic alternative to our previous bank.

thefishdude

i to have cashminder account and i does take a couple of days for things to show up, but to be honest i dont see it is a problemat all and have not got yself into trouble over the last year and a half.