Cater Allen > Reviews > Come back Flemings, all is forgiven

Author's product rating:   

Competitiveness of APR	Average
Product package	Average
Additional Charges	high
Security and Privacy	good

Advantages:	Polite, generally moderately knowledgeable staff
Disadvantages:	No longer able to answer the phone quickly .

Recommend to potential buyers:

no

Full review

I have banked with Cater Allen for many decades, since they were the retail banking arm of Robert Fleming & Co (RIP).

Having passed through various corporate hands they ended up with Abbey, which in turn is part of the Santander Group.

The whole operation was always faintly amateurish, with serious incompetence demonstrated when anything complicated was requested (for example transferring funds to an overseas account), but the call centre operatives were friendly and polite, always addressed me as 'Mr Hemingway' and gave both their name and surname.

The one aspect of their operation that was good was the fact that the calls to the bank are answered by a human who can actually help. Being passed around the centre was very rare, and this alone kept me a loyal customer. The other great thing about the bank was that phone calls are answered within a short time - usually within 12 rings.

Sadly now Cater Allen has, at long last, offered internet banking, this is not the case. The bank has decided, like all the other retail banks, that customers are important, but not so important that it's worth answering the phone to them promptly.

To give you an idea of how long you might have to wait, I *nearly* finished this review before anyone actually picked up the phone, this at 2:45pm on a Monday afternoon.