Finding a reliable home for my savings

peterhjohnson

I've been reviewing my Savings accounts looking for better deals and signed up for a Cahoot Sunny Day account. All went well and I was able to move trivial amounts between it and my current account (from a mainstream bank) in both directions OK.

Then I looked at the Trustpilot reviews of Cahoot. They are terrible! I nearly closed my account then and there! Then I looked at the reviews for my current account bank who I've been with for decades and they were terrible too! A look at some of the biggest names was not reassuring either!

Some of the criticism ot banks on Trustpilot were around account opening issues but that's not an issue at this stage for me. Others are where people haven't been able to withdraw money for weeks despite having accounts with instant access.

Ok, I know about the ombudsman, FSCS but at least one of the accounts I need is for my "emergency fund". How do I find a reliable bank?

Thanks!

Dazed_and_C0nfused

As far as your current account is concerned why do the views of others matter if you've been happy with it for decades 🤷

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6689618/finding-a-reliable-home-for-my-savings

DRS1

Rather than rely on a single bank spread your money around. That way if something goes wrong with one bank you may still be able to get the money you need out of another one.

mon3ysav3r

My thought is that review sites are unlikely to give a balanced view for banks, people tend to leave bad reviews after having issues, or maybe they have other grievances or agendas, but who bothers to give a positive review when receiving the good service that they expected to receive from their bank.

I have been with Cahoot for over 25 years since Abbey National days, and for a long time it was my main current account provider (NLA) with debit card and cheque book. But there will also be people who reply who have had bad experiences with them I suspect.

Why try to find just one reliable bank? Personally I have multiple current accounts, multiple savings accounts, and multiple credit cards all with different providers. If there is an issue with any of those I can just use another account until it is sorted out. I don't then have to stress if there is a technology issue with cards, apps, banking portals etc. I have had my current accounts locked several times (especially when being abroad) and I just use another account for a while.

eskbanker

Then I looked at the Trustpilot reviews of Cahoot. They are terrible! I nearly closed my account then and there! Then I looked at the reviews for my current account bank who I've been with for decades and they were terrible too! A look at some of the biggest names was not reassuring either!

Hopefully you can join up the dots and realise how useless Trustpilot is as a meaningful measure of the quality of financial institutions?

Tim_L

Cahoot is fine. I've got pretty much my entire cash buffer with them and a transfer to my main current account is quick and easy. The only thing I have against them is that there isn't an app so I can't do my finances in bed.

Starling I think has a high interest rate easy access for smaller amounts, but I use loads of banks and savings places and the idea there might be issues with transfers is not even a remote concern. Redundancy is probably a protection if you are concerned, so you have roughly equal amounts in reasonable rate instant access accounts in case one goes offline for some reason.

Sherlock33

Aother satisfied user of cahoot here. There's no app but that's just a minor annoyance. No one goes on a site like trustpilot to say they are happy, it's a place to vent when something has gone wrong.

Cisco001

I won't worry any bank with FCSC.

The question would be how easy you could use the app/ online plaform/ telephone banking. And at what interest rate.

My saving is with zopa at the moment as it is instant access. Bank with app are handy to use.

I do have Cahoot due to it is 5% interest rate. It was better than 1 year fixed previously…

InvesterJones

If safety is of the utmost concern then give up a bit of interest and use NS&I.

mon3ysav3r

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82194415#Comment_82194415

In terms of having more than 120K NS&I ticks the being covered box, but NS&I also have lots of complaints in these forums, particularly issues concerning logging in or getting decent phone support

Eco_Miser

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6689618/finding-a-reliable-home-for-my-savings

In those decades you have had your current account, have you ever left a positive review on Trustpilot?

If not, don't expect anyone else to, either. Which means the review will be overwhelmingly bad as only dissatisfied customers leave reviews.

As already stated, have at least two current accounts (and associated saving accounts) with unrelated banks for resilience.