Banks

REBECCA_STEVENS

Hi, Can anyone tell me if Cashplus bank is safe. Thinking of opening a business account with them.

Thanks. Rebecca.

colsten

No bank can be considered safe these days. Although a lot depends on your definition of 'safe'.

Your business may qualify for FSCS protection up to £85K. https://www.fscs.org.uk/your-claim/useful-information/small-business-charity/. If it does, it is imperative that you only consider the account(s) which offer this FSCS protection.

eskbanker

Depends what you mean by safe really, but conventionally the benchmark is membership of the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS), which guarantees deposits of up to £85K in the event of failure.

Cashplus isn't a bank and isn't covered by FSCS, as per https://www.cashplus.com/help-about/, so if it's safety you're after there will be better options elsewhere:

Are Cashplus accounts covered by FSCS?

As we’re not a bank, we’re not members of the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS).

However, the funds on your account are safeguarded and held in a segregated account with The Royal Bank Of Scotland (RBS). That means that in the unlikely event of AFL becoming insolvent, your funds are required to be repaid from this segregated account before the claims of other creditors.

castle96

Meet our Executive Team – with over 250 years’ experience across 4 continents

Rich Wagner
CEO & Board Director

Paul Schooley
Chief Operating Officer

Bob van Breda
Chief Financial Officer

Richard Bastin
Chief Technology Officer

4 people, 250 yrs, 60 + each. They are all under 60 !!

Zanderman

castle96 wrote: »

Meet our Executive Team – with over 250 years’ experience across 4 continents
4 people, 250 yrs

They're all Time Lords

PS But Cashplus bank isn't a bank.

Chino

castle96 wrote: »

4 people, 250 yrs, 60 + each. They are all under 60 !!

To be fair, the "Executive Team" does appear to comprise more than the four individuals at the bottom of the page, although if you click on "Meet the team" and then on "Executive members", you still only reach 30 + 26 + 22 + 25 + 25 + 20 + 13 = 161 years.

Put that, along with the fact that, despite all* wearing a jacket and shirt, none of them can afford a tie, makes one wonder whether they can be trusted with other people's money.

* Actually, one isn't wearing a jacket. So can't even afford to dress himself.

eskbanker

castle96 wrote: »

Meet our Executive Team – with over 250 years’ experience across 4 continents

Rich Wagner
CEO & Board Director

Paul Schooley
Chief Operating Officer

Bob van Breda
Chief Financial Officer

Richard Bastin
Chief Technology Officer

4 people, 250 yrs, 60 + each. They are all under 60 !!

http://www.cashplusgroup.com/investor-relations/ is more comprehensive, referring to "our board and executive team, with more than 250 years of combined financial services management experience" above brief profiles of the 6-man board and the 7-man exec team (seemingly no room for the fairer sex). The four you've cited total about 100 years of the 250....

jonnygee2

My advice is always not to use 'cashplus' or any other 'e money' institution for anything serious. Use a real bank.

Any e money institution doesn't have direct control your funds but transfers them through third parties and real banks. It's not a system I trust.

However, the funds on your account are safeguarded and held in a segregated account with The Royal Bank Of Scotland (RBS). That means that in the unlikely event of AFL becoming insolvent, your funds are required to be repaid from this segregated account before the claims of other creditors.

But this conveniently neglegts to metnion what happens if RBS goes insolvent, which is that your money would be gone. Whereas if you had the money in an RBS account in your name it would be protected.

System

jonnygee2 wrote: »

But this conveniently neglects to mention what happens if RBS goes insolvent, which is that your money would be gone. Whereas if you had the money in an RBS account in your name it would be protected.

As a nationalised bank, the Royal Bank of Scotland is fairly safe.

That said, only certain businesses are covered by the FSCS scheme and the OP would need to check.

Zanderman

The safety of money is, obviously, important - and what the OP is asking about. But I would add that, depending on the business and amount of money in the bank - whether a real bank or not - the bigger issue might be whether the account suits its purpose - i.e. has the facilities you need for a business bank account.

Cashplus is, iirc, one of those 'virtual' banks that don't have facilities for receiving or issuing cheques (which some might think is old-fashioned but is still a regular thing for businesses - I received two cheques only last week, one from a building society and one from HMRC), don't have facilities for paying in cash and, in the online world, don't have facilities for IBAN numbers so can't take international payments, or even those from online partners like Amazon.

Those are what would put me off.

Safety of the cash in the 'bank' is obviously important too, though it's only a really big issue if you leave a lot in there! As I never do (my businesses rarely have balances in 4 figures at any one time) that angle is not high on my list. Available facilities is though.

londoninvestor

Heng_Leng wrote: »

As a nationalised bank, the Royal Bank of Scotland is fairly safe.

That said, only certain businesses are covered by the FSCS scheme and the OP would need to check.

The bigger risk IMO isn't with the custodian bank - it's the risk that the e-money provider fails (whether through incompetence or shady dealing) to properly segregate your money into the place where it's supposed to be ring-fenced.

Then if the provider goes bust and your assets aren't covered by deposits in the supposedly-segregated account, you have no recourse to the FSCS.

Compare that to an FSCS-protected account: if your deposit (up to £85k) can't be repaid by the bank for any reason, the FSCS will compensate you.

I know CashPlus offers services to customers with credit history challenges, but a conventional bank's basic account generally ought to be a better choice.