Cater Allen Reviews 

AVOID AVOID VERY BAD experience with the bank . Any instructions to them should be by courier or by FAX who use a fax today in 2022 . they have close My business account without acknowledging me and was not able to tell me on whose instructions it was done and where the money is .I was in contact with the team telling them that my company is in process of restauration but despite this the bank has closed my account .and not able to tell me where my money is . very bad banking service and I DO NOT RECOMMEND THIS BANK its a zero star for me

Custom service only open between 9am and 6pm and there is no way to unlock your account outside of this time. Resulting in no access to your money. Lovely

contacted this bank about opening a trust fund was told wrong imformation over the phonew as unsure how to open trust fund was told complete application wastold once we recieve your application you should get bank details within 3 days. found out thay declined my application but thay refuse to tell me why

I have had business accounts with CA for 14 years and they have always been super helpful.
They provide everything I need efficiently - with the exception of an app.
Payments are also a bit slower than most banks.
However i can still heartily recommend them for a business account. Phone support is second to none - but had a bad patch during lockdowns.

I was surprised to see the poor reviews! I've had a business account with Caterallen for 6 years - always had a 5 star service- easy to do 99% of what I need on line but always helpful when I phone.

I have a business account with them since 2018. Imagine the bank experience before the internet well this bank is pretty close to that experience. To be fair you can log into your account online, you can transfer from one bank account to another, you can even use their debit card in a cash point. That pretty much wraps up what you can do.

They are owned by Santander but you go into a Santander branch they've never heard of Caterallen, one person said to me "wow this is the first time somebody has ever come in asking about Caterallen". I was told no you cannot deposit cheques into your Caterallen business account here have you tried the Post Office they asked? I thought what? OK long story short, you cannot deposit cheques into your business account but the HMRC send out cheques still. You will not believe the process to deposit money 1. you have to fill in a paying slip 2. oh no I don't have one I'll order one online 3. go online click order cheque book (closest option) a message pops up you need to phone this number 4. you phone the number you're on hold forever, so rinse and repeat until you give up 5. only option is to send an internal message.

If I ever do get a paying in slip, I have to pop the HMRC cheque and posit it to their clearing centre in some warehouse somewhere up north. It's the only place

Quite staggering incompetence. From missing payments of nearly 3 weeks due to them not being able to contact their intermediary bank (Santander who own them) to their recent KYC due diligence fiasco of irrelevant questions of no value to them or anyone else. I've spoke to supervisors and compliance, met by either arrogance or no response. One star is too many.

As others have said the ‘new’ website is antiquated and very confusing to use, to the point where I’ll soon be switching my accounts. CA used to have an excellent contact centre who immediately picked up the phone. Sadly there are now substantial wait times which is annoying because a lot of stuff cannot be done online.

I opened a euro account with Cater Allen about 3 months ago. I nearly didn't because of the poor reviews in Trustpilot. Admittedly my use is very simple but my experience so far is positive. Setting up the account was easy and any questions I had were promptly and efficiently answered by Customer Service staff who were very friendly. My use of the website, for the information I need, has been hassle free. So far I am glad I chose Cater Allen.

Its a bank living in the 90s. CA was great back in the early 2000s. However lack of investment in their IT systems,website..telephony & not even an app... It's embarrassing Throughout Covid, they didn't even offer a bounce bank loan, had to wait 5 months for Santander to arrange it.
After 12 years, CA just haven't moved on, I will say their staff are always polite on the phone. 10 no the aga I moved to Starling and there is no comparison.. Starling ticks every box

Dreadful customer service. 1 star is one too many.
Promised to return call never happened
Refused to transfer money
Account is being closed and all money withdrawn after 23 years

After 8 years with the bank, the first 6 of which I had no problems I have now left CA and switched to another Bank. Can't begin to describe how awful this bank is. It's almost as if they don't want Customers.
Things went downhill ~2yrs ago when they decided to 'upgrade' their online system. Downgrade is more a suitable term. An awfully poorly designed system that isin't fit for purpose. I just about put up with it but no longer, not since CA systems just randomly started rejecting payments that my business was attempting to make (plenty of money in the account, payments made to said accounts previously). Final straw was when they couldn't change my business address as they couldn't grasp the concept of a company mailbox! Customer service usually awful if you manage to get hold of them. Heaven forbid there isin't a security issue with your account as they close from 5pm and at weekends! So glad to be shot of them. Absolutely useless.

Very bad website. Statement production is hit and miss. You can't cancel payments online. Look and feel terrible. Have to use 2FA for each payment.

I have been a customer for 21 years and they used to have a good telephone service, now has reduced hours. Quicker to use the telephone than their webs(h)ite, or maybe carrier pigeon.

I had compensation and mostly serapion Carter Allen Trust account for me I had to pay them just under £1,000 to open my account and all I've had is hassle and had money took out of my account which they can't account for I want to close my account and I want my money back that I paid to open it it cos it's just a load of crap that I've had since I've been with them

Our complaint against Cater Allen was upheld by the Financial Services Ombudsman. Cater Allen refused to apologise and pay compensation. We would not recommend them to other customers.

This bank used to be an example of excellent customer service and had an ageing but acceptable website. Since being 'upgraded' to the new website and despite my best efforts I am committed to moving away. The user experience of the new website is incredibly bad to the point of being unmanageable. I have attempted constructive feedback but the website times out due to a bug. The advice from the technical team was to write shorter messages or paste from a word document. I would urge the bank to reinvest in call centre availability as the new online banking offering is clunky, time consuming and simply not fit for purpose.

Taking me 3 weeks to open a second account with them. The bureaucracy is extreme. the timescale ridiculous. Absolutely incompetent from start to finish. Avoid

I have had a Cater Allen business account for about 5 years on the advice of an accountant. It’s true they haven’t charged me any fees. That’s about all that’s good. Their online offering is hilariously poor. Cheques have to be sent via post and clearing takes 5-7 days.. I cannot wait to leave. Access through a phone after their latest upgrade is simply awful. And now to cap it all, on trying to leave them it seems that they don’t support open switching for customers wanting to leave (though are happy to help customers wanting to transfer to them). I can’t get away quick enough.

This has got to be the WORST bank in existence. They recently "updated" their online banking system but it's just as bad as the old one. The functionality is simply not there and getting to do ANYTHING with this bank is so incredibly laboursome and complicated that it literally makes me want to scream in frustration. I will be closing my account at the end of May, I endured their atrocious services for 4 years merely because I couldn't bring myself to deal with their horrific processes but enough is enough: I can't even initiate a payment now, the system wouldn't allow me without stating the issue.
Please listen to these reviews and stay away from this bank and look for another provider, trust me, you will be much better off and thanking all of us later.

I've used Cater Allen for business banking for about 18 months and now I'm closing the account and switching to a different provider. I would advise against using them because their service just isn't what it needs to be.

From the beginning, CA have been difficult to work with. It took months to set up the banking feed into my accounting software, which led to lots of manual and unnecessary work for me.

I had high hopes and held on for the new banking website. Unfortunately, it's a mess. The login procedure is time consuming and difficult. You might think that's a necessary evil because of security, but unfortunately, they're not following best security practice. The user journeys are poorly thought out, which is why people in reviews are complaining that they can't find anything. Then there's the problem with functionality just not working. Since last week I tried to cancel a standing order online several times. In the end, I had to give up on the website and call them to get it sorted.

CA's big thing is that they don't charge banking fees. That sounds good on the face of it, but that saving is massively outweighed by the amount of time you spend dealing with problems. There are also other no-fee options out there.

There have been improvements. Recently, they've been able to do same day banking transfers online. Unfortunately, they're a few years behind the curve on this and while I wish them the best and hope that they can up their game, progress is too slow. With the serious mistakes that they've made with the new website, it looks like it'll be years before they're worth considering as a business bank.

It's a shame, but there are much better, more functional and more secure banking options available.