I set up a Cahoot account last January, and believe me it ain't easy.
To begin with there are about 9 or 10 pages of tedious form filling to complete. But make one mistake, accidental omission or misunderstanding, and the procedure grinds to a halt. In my case, I live in a block of flats, which has a name. On the first line of the address section is "House number". So if I typed 100 for that line, followed by "Wuthering Heights" for the 2nd line, followed by the street name on the next address line, Cahoot rejected this. After several attempts and combinations I tried to start the registration again, only to be told that my chosen username and password was already in use. Doh!!! This time I contacted Cahoot by telephone. That can be a trial in itself when they are busy, which they often are. Being on an 0870 code is expensive and time consuming when you're presented with an array of
menu layers. Then you have to wait in a queue. Anyway that problem was resolved, but it took nearly an hour of time and patience. Flat dwellers beware! Not a good start, but there was worse to come.
After completing the form and submitting proof of address, my credit card, debit card, pin number and flimsy welcome pack arrived within 10 days. OK. Except there were no pay-in slips, but plenty of pay-in envelopes. I e-mailed Cahoot 3 times over 10 days, before the promised pay-in slips arrived. Then my problems really started.
I attempted to transfer a not inconsiderable sum from Halifax to Cahoot by CHAPS. Instead of the money arriving at Cahoot the following day, it failed to arrive at all. During the next 3 days I spent hours making frantic phone calls and ploughing through endless menu systems to both Cahoot and Halifax to find out why my savings had disappeared into cyberspace. Each blamed the other for the problem. Eventually the money surfaced in Cahoot's "suspense" file. They had not even bothered to contact me about this. I also lost 3 days interest, but I was just relieved to see my cash again. Cahoot also operate a "one-off direct debit payment from another bank" which I would have used, except that it takes at least 4 working days to complete the process. It's just as well that I did not use this method.
Recently, I attempted to transfer £2,500 and £15,000 by direct debit (DD) from Halifax using Cahoot's "one-off DD" feature. What I discovered a few days later was that each transaction had been duplicated, plunging my Halifax current account deeply into the red. I wrote to Cahoot, who replied apologising for the errors, and offering to meet any charges that Halifax raised. They assured me that my problems had been passed to their technical staff. Well so much for the worst scenario. In any case Halifax waived their charges after I explained what had happened.
On the positive side, they do have a pleasant uncluttered website, which is easy to use once you become familiar with the features. Their "Statement" menu gives you a monthly archive, although I don't know how far back it will stretch (6 months so far). Halifax Online only show you the last 60 transactions in comparison. The interest rate on non-cheque accounts is currently 6.2%, with 6% paid on chequebook accounts. But for those lucky to hold £250,000 or more in their accounts, this reduces to 5.5% on the WHOLE balance. If the interest rate advantage Cahoot has over its rivals is eroded, then the real reason to use their current account service will be lost, unless things improve. On the communication side, this can vary. E-mails often take at least 3 days before a response is forthcoming. But when attempting to open an additional account, their website told me that I had the maximum number of accounts allowed. Apparently this is not the case. I contacted Cahoot by e-mail 2 weeks ago, but have not yet had a reply. The bills payment feature appears to work. I successfully transferred a sum from Cahoot back to a Halifax Websaver account without a problem. But another user recently posted that he had trouble with this feature. I am going to pay my BT bill by this means, and will report back if it goes AWOL.
All in all not very satisfactory. The "one-off DD" feature is actually very dangerous, when either it doesn't appear to work or duplicates the transactions. This needs looking into more than anything else. But I am prepared to still give Cahoot a chance as Internet banking is still in its infancy. However they need to improve their communications, and get their money transfer features working properly.
How helpful would this review be to a person making a buying decision? Rating guidelines
Was great to read as I was planning on going to them. I stillmight try but I will be very wary. Thanks for your info. Rae
Collingwood21 14.07.2001 15:37
A very extensive review - no wonder you feel ripped off! I experienced similar signing up problems with Smile, but just had to give up in the end as it was just too much hassle. Hope things have sorted out for you now!
Advantages: 24/7 banking facility, instant access, £500 a day from cash machines, good interest rates. Disadvantages: Internet only manipulation. Deposits via the mail or post office can introduce some delay.
quoia 15.07.2001 (02.08.2001)
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