Cahoot - Can't transfer money from Savings A/c to Bond

Primrose

I've tried today to transfer money from our Cahoot online savings account to their 6 month bond which pays a higher rate of interest but their website only seems to have a default option to accept a direct debit from a non-Cahoot bank and won't accept a Cahoot Savings Account number. Has anybody else tried to do this? I'm wondering if it's a crafty attempt to attract new money yet prevent existing customers from benefitting from higher interest rates. I know Icesave pay higher interest but I wanted to avoid the hassle and lost interest involved in withdrawing money from the market for however long it would take.

Millionaire

Looking at the savings account details at cahoot I think you can only transfer the funds to the nominated bank account. If yours is a non-cahoot bank account then it would take a round trip of around 8 days to hit your bond account.

I would suggest you ring them up and see if they can transfer the amount across for you. If they say no, kick up a fuss and speak to a who should be able to action it for you.

10_66

Primrose wrote: »

I've tried today to transfer money from our Cahoot online savings account to their 6 month bond which pays a higher rate of interest but their website only seems to have a default option to accept a direct debit from a non-Cahoot bank and won't accept a Cahoot Savings Account number. Has anybody else tried to do this? I'm wondering if it's a crafty attempt to attract new money yet prevent existing customers from benefitting from higher interest rates. I know Icesave pay higher interest but I wanted to avoid the hassle and lost interest involved in withdrawing money from the market for however long it would take.

Sorry if this is a silly question, but did you try opening the account after you'd logged on? If you didn't, that might be the reason why you're having a problem. They say on their website "If you are already a cahoot customer looking to open a new account you will need to log in to cahoot and click on cahoot products". Just wondered?

Moomin

I have a cahoot savings account and opened up a fixed-rate bond account with cahoot last week. I did this online. During the online application, it asks if you want to set up direct debit with an external current account but it didn't ask if you wanted to transfer money from an existing cahoot account. Luckily , having checked with Cahoot Customer Service, I was told that my account had been setup successfully, and you can setup a transfer online.

I tried, but could only see an option to withdraw from my savings into a non-cahoot account.

Spoke to cahoot customer services again, and they said people had rung up having the same problem transferring money into their fixed-rate bond account! What you need to do is withdraw from your Savings Account, into a non-cahoot account - but enter the sort code and account number of your Fixed-Rate Bond Account (the sort code should be the same as your online savings account with cahoot).

If unsure, send a note to their customer services, and they will ring you back straight away (there customer service is good. They always ring me back within 5 minutes of asking them to do so)

Primrose

Thank you Moomin. I was beginning to wonder whether I'd lost the plot and have now e- mailed them. Can't imagine why they didn't realise that existing customers would want to transfer to a better savings rate and set up their website to cope accordingly. But I don't see how I can enter the number of my Fixed Rate Bond Account if it won't let me set one up in the first place. Could you explain please how did you get to be allocated a Bond Account number?

quietishone

As an existing customer with a current account and savings account with them, I logged on and then applied to open the account. i selected the option to pay the one payment allowed from my current account.
24 hours later I receive an e-mail saying that the account is set up and giving me the number so that i can send money from another financial institution but that if i want to transfer it from a cahoot account i need to phone their support line.
dial 0844 9000 900 (the number on the website), answer the usual security questions, the girl on the other end of the line confirms the account numbers and then transfers the money for me.
But why their website can't be configured to let you do this without assistance?

Primrose

Cahoot responded to my email as follows:

Thank you for contacting cahoot in Coventry. We have removed the facility to deposit into the bond via the cahoot website as the bond only gives interest on the initial deposit, and we wish to prevent accidental further deposits. Please call us on 0844 9000 900 if you wish for us to open the bond and move the funds for you.

I did phone them and after going round in a telephone loop for 10 frustrating minutes, somebody finally set up and account for me and promised that the money would be transferred into the bond within 48 hours. I will go back online and check. I don't have a high degree of confidence in bank's Customer Service Departments. Can't understand why they want to prevent customers making additional deposits into the bond though. I imagine you could go back and open a second bond which has exactly the same effect.