Cahoot taking a leaf from the ICICI book?

innovate

In June this year, I applied for a Cahoot savings account. I had no other account with Cahoot at the time, it took three days and my savings account was active. Brilliant [or: just what you'd expect, at a minimum, from an Internet bank].

Since Cahoot have now launched the Bonus Savings account, at a rate they do not offer / automatically apply to their customers on lower interest rates, I applied for one of those Bonus Savings accounts last Friday.

All I had so far from Cahoot are two, literally identical, emails, asking me how I plan to fund my initial deposit [>£5,000] into this account. Options given are:

1. Yes, the funds will come from another cahoot account
2. Yes it’s is a reinvestment from external bank account
3. Yes, it’s a sale of assets
4. Yes it’s a gift
5. Yes it’s a transfer from another bank
6. Yes it’s inheritance
7. No I won’t be investing £5,000 or more into this account as an initial deposit

I responded to the first email just after I got it early yesterday morning, and promptly received a personalised [not automated] confirmation email by return, saying my response had been passed on to the relevant cahoot department. Alarm bells should have been ringing then - - - why the need to pass the information to the "relevant department", why wasn't it "the relevant department" that asked me in the first instance?

At the end of business today, I got a second, almost identical, request, on how I intend to fund the initial deposit....zero reference to my earlier response, for which I had received the personalised confirmation from Cahoot.

I am beginning to think Cahoot may have hired some of the ICICI customer service personnel - - - and the other way round, since my ICICI application went through without a hitch.

Am not best best pleased with Cahoot right now - first, they don't give their existing customers the option to benefit from the increased interest rates (the "new customers only" TV ad springs to mind), and then they are quite obviously dragging their heels when customers take their own initative.

I feel a strong letter to the Cahoot CEO coming on...........

mary

Cahoot are not alone in not offering existing customers the "good" deals which are designed to attract in more new customers. That's the way life is in many cases these days.

charlieboycat

innovate wrote:

I feel a strong letter to the Cahoot CEO coming on...........

I too got (albeit only once) the Spanish inquisition email. But not until I'd chased up after 5 days as to why the new account hadn't been opened in 48 hours. Having supplied the info, I complained that (if required) it should have been asked for as part of the application process- and asked when the account would be opened? I got the following reply:

Thank you for contacting cahoot.

Further to your query, due to our new savings account offer, there has
been an increase in the number of applications that we normally
receive. As such we would not be able to advise of a more precise time for
completion of your application.

At present, all applications need to be completed by our agents rather
than an automated computer system.

Kind regards

So much for computerisation and internet banking. Now seven days since account applied for and it's still not open. Processing outsourced to ICICI agents in Mumbai perhaps?

innovate

My bonus savings account had suddenly been opened just before 09:00 this morning - my Egg MoneyManager "found it". May be my strong(-ish) response to Cahoot's second email last night did the trick, or may be it was just going to happen anyway, don't know, didn't get any further email from them (not even any notifier that my new account had been opened). I could make the transfer from my other Cahoot savings account instantaneously - that's one good thing about the Cahoot accounts.

So I am a happier bunny now, though I am still incensed that as an existing saver I didn't automatically get the bonus rate. And you are right, charlieboycat, why didn't they do the "spanish inquisition" thingy during the application process...betcha, people totally new to Cahoot savings didn't get those questions

charlieboycat

innovate wrote:

My bonus savings account had suddenly been opened just before 09:00 this morning

Well done innovate.

Anyone else managed to get one of the new Bonus Saver accounts open and active yet? If so, how long did it take?

charlieboycat

Mine now suddenly open this morning (after over seven days) without any email notification. However, direct debit details provided as part of application do not appear on the "deposits" page so unable to initiate any further deposits yet (except by BACS - with 2 days lost interest).

smudgie2

Have just checked Charlieboycat and mine is up and running ! from this morning.

charlieboycat

smudgie2 wrote:

Have just checked Charlieboycat and mine is up and running ! from this morning.

Thanks smudgie2. Is your direct debit available to make further deposits?

smudgie2

Hi again Charlieboycat,
Didn't request a direct debit to this new account. First action will be to move the balance above 50K into this new accountfrom my existing Cahoot savings account, thereby getting 5.25% rather than the 4.8% it is currently earning. My intention then is to deposit further funds into the savings account and transfer across into the Bonus Saver.

innovate

charlieboycat, just checked my bonus account, and like you, I don't have a direct debit set up for it. But this doesn't bother me too much at the moment - the direct debit for my other savings account is set up ok, and transfers between the Cahoot accounts are instant. Need to ask them, though, why they haven't set up the DD as requested - thanks for alerting me to this!

charlieboycat

innovate wrote:

Need to ask them, though, why they haven't set up the DD as requested - thanks for alerting me to this!

I asked them today when the dd would be available for use to make transfers - they said 10 days, when the initial deposit dd takes effect.

Like innovate/smudgie2 I can make deposits via an existing Cahoot account, but I set the new dd up against a different bank account so as to have two external sources of funding for the Cahoot account.