Cahoot and Intelligent Finance winding down?

ed123_2

I have read articles on other websites which suggest that Cahoot & Intelligent Finance are winding down operations. Both no longer offer accounts to new customers and no longer market their services. Cahoot is my main current account & I also use an IF current account. What will happen if they close? ie will I have to transfer all dd's & so's and inform pension co's/hmrc/building soc's etc that pay into these accounts, of new current account details?.........thanks ed

planteria

i don't know..
but perhaps Cahoot accounts will become Santander accounts and IF accounts will become Halifax accounts?

innovate

Neither of the two are good accounts, really. You can do a lot better at many other places , and some of them even pay you for switching to them (Halifax, First Direct, Santander 123).

If you want to get paid, you must use the new bank's switcher service. http://www.paymentscouncil.org.uk/switch_service/

But you can also switch yourself, at your own pace. It's not hard to do.

You won't be left with no accounts, even if they close down their service (which they probably will before long). They will give you appropriate notice, and probably will switch you to one of their going-concern accounts if you do nothing. You could always discuss your concerns with your banks, but why wait if you can make money by acting yourself?

planteria

innovate wrote: »

..probably will switch you to one of their going-concern accounts if you do nothing.

agreed. why would they Choose to lose a potentially very profitable customer?

jimjames

ed123 wrote: »

I have read articles on other websites which suggest that Cahoot & Intelligent Finance are winding down operations. Both no longer offer accounts to new customers and no longer market their services. Cahoot is my main current account & I also use an IF current account. What will happen if they close? ie will I have to transfer all dd's & so's and inform pension co's/hmrc/building soc's etc that pay into these accounts, of new current account details?.........thanks ed

Both are with different banks so unlikely they would both decide to close at the same time.

Very easy to switch now and both Nationwide & Halifax have much better accounts on offer. Switching service will move all DD and SO for you automatically. Cahoot does still pay 1% on current account balances so far from being a bad account.

BTW I'm with Cahoot and have not heard anything - which websites have you seen this info? How reliable is it and can you post some links please?

Gizmo247

I too had accounts in both Cahoot and IF and used Cahoot as my main account. I suddenly woke up to the fact that these banks were on their way out about 2 years ago and switched and that was about 2 years too late.

Cahoot is now nothing more than a bad bank, plagued by accounts with bad debt that cannot be moved to Santander, so don't hold your breath on your accounts being moved, if at all.

There are lots of banks offering incentives to move followed up with loyalty rates and offers on mortgages, savings and credit cards. My advice is to switch away from Cahoot and IF now, on your own terms and to your advantage.

Perhaps it is time for a New Year financial clean up.

opinions4u

Gizmo247 wrote: »

Cahoot is now nothing more than a bad bank, plagued by accounts with bad debt that cannot be moved to Santander, so don't hold your breath on your accounts being moved, if at all.

My understanding was that Abbey National used the Cahoot brand to cherry pick better quality customers.

While it may suit to leave inert customers where they are I'd be very surprised if the unsecured lending was of a poorer quality than the Abbey / Santander branded book.

barak

Gizmo247 wrote: »

.....Cahoot is now nothing more than a bad bank, plagued by accounts with bad debt that cannot be moved to Santander......

You could say that all banks are bad.....but I'd be interested to know where this particular information comes from.

jimjames

opinions4u wrote: »

My understanding was that Abbey National used the Cahoot brand to cherry pick better quality customers.

As a customer of Cahoot I'd much prefer this angle than the bad debt one!

I always thought the same and they did appear to be quite stringent in their credit checks unlike some other banks

BeachNut

Cahoot current accounts offered interest free overdrafts of upto 100 pounds. You could have more than 1 account. Why close the accounts when you can leave them idle with the max interest free overdraft balance on them ? Put the funds into santander 123 account... so Santander end up paying you interest on cash you are borrowing from them interest free. :T

Gizmo247

barak wrote: »

You could say that all banks are bad.....but I'd be interested to know where this particular information comes from.

I believe I read it in their financial statement. With the interest free overdrafts and flexible loans disaster Santander tried to push customers out of Cahoot with over inflated interested rate rises, overdraft cuts and changes to the terms and conditions.

With Cahoot offering no products whatsoever I'm sure Santander would love to merge customers into their platform but it just isn't going to happen.

For now they just sell the debt on and play a waiting game.