Cater Allen Avis 

Impossible to create an online account. Refused the User ID I was trying to create despite me following the criteria. I got someone on the phone pretty quickly - we spent 30 minutes on the phone and it still didn't work. I will be resorting to telephone banking and have put in a complaint. They also had my mobile phone number wrong on the account. Not impressed. This issue has come at a very stressful time so spending 1 hour trying to set up an account with no success was not welcome!

I am a new customer my solicitor frenkel topping signed me up after I had said reviews are shocking. They said would be ok. I can confirm the telephone operatives dont listen or understand anything and wr havnt recieved the paperwork. They wont help. Or repost. I havnt been able to access my money due to incompetence of customer services or even set up telephone banking. There is no app and it doesnt work on the phone so you need a laptop. Very disappointed. As this bank work with disability I would of thought they would have better customer services and people who could actually do the job.

I've banked with Cater Allen for some 30 years. Service has deteriorated markedly, no customer service at weekends, long, long waits for the phone to be answered, outsourced services to people who don't follow through, over two weeks wait for a replacement card, no modernisation such as an App or facial recognition. I'm currently trying to switch to another bank but Cater Allen even makes that difficult. It used to be really good but the decline started with the Santander takeover.

I called Cater Allen to transfer funds into a savings account from my CA account. I had already made three transfers to the new account. There are 20+? questions to answer designed to prevent money laundering but also to protect themselves from liability if anything were to go awry.
When asked where I had heard about the destination account, I replied I couldn't remember, to be met with " if you won't answer the questions I will not arrange the transfer" .
He went on to make a mistake regarding the amount of funds to be transferred.
The level of service is extraordinarily poor at times. But more importantly they appear to believe they have the right to withhold their service for the weakest of reason. This stasi approach is totally unacceptable.

I've been a Cater Allen customer for years as well as a Santander customer. They have frozen my account pending proof of my occupation, despite me having the same job for 25 years and having plenty of funds in my account. Frustratingly all communication with them has been by post and they will only accept proof by post which seems excessively outdated, unreliable and slow, not to mention not environmentally friendly. Their customer service telephone service leaves you waiting on hold for hours and when you do eventually get to speak to someone they do not know what they can and cannot do to help. I'm a sole trader and so this is incredibly damaging to my business and a huge waste of time. Appalling customer service to loyal customers.

Have been a business customer for 26 years.. always in credit .. started my business with them and they used to be good. Now have just had my account closed with 60 days notice (it was actually 45 days notice as they advised the closure by post and I was on holiday and the post was slow. Phoned them to ask for extension so that I had time to open a new account but they did not phone back or help. DO not use. Useless and uncaring.

Utterly incompetent and shouldn't be allowed to operate by Financial Services Authority.

Was told to call back at 7pm to see if funds have cleared , the consultant knows they close at 6pm completely incompetent. Wasting my time

Terrible, zero stars, negative stars if I could. Business customer for years then the dreaded account closure letter. No reasons, no explanations, no sense to it. Take your money elsewhere.

Wow…How Bad?
I genuinely can’t think of anything additional to say over all the other reviews on how poor this bank is, other than to say: 1) All the bad reviews are accurate; 2) Wow…how bad can a bank be???
If not propped up by Santander, they would have collapsed! Santander must rue the day they acquired this lemon!

2 year fixed rate savings account matured on October 5th and I’m still waiting for the balance plus interest to be paid out. Absolutely scandalous and I’m now hoping to get one of the newspapers to take up the story given the proceeds are urgently required

Cater Allen should be avoided at all costs! They are worse than useless. Euros had been sent to my business euro account on the Wednesday and took till the following Tuesday to show in my account! This is not acceptable on any level and no explanation was offered. The staff (once you have been on hold for an average of 30mins) were unhelpful and clearly uninterested. The ladies I eventually spoke to should not be in customer service roles.
I will be moving my business accounts elsewhere. Do yourself a favour and avoid at all costs, do not engage with them.

A dinosaur that somehow still exists, outdated website - increasing call wait times - inability to validate new payees with NO way around that, so your money is trapped... been quietly with CA for over a decade now I desperately need out

Terrible customer service from Cater Allen. I was hanging on the telephone for 40 minutes to speak to them but gave up in the end. Their internet banking is awful and they don't care about customers at all. Im switching my account to another bank. I've had enough.

What a diabolical bank!! Not only do they have an archaic and very limited online banking portal. The bank takes days longer than any other bank for transactions to come in and out. This bank needs to be investigated for sitting on your money and earning off the interest while your money is locked to you. You wait near to an hour for customer services to answer your call. Then be told that they can't provide any time frames for reactivating your account. I've been waiting for the re-activation for over 3 weeks, and wouldn't usually bother with this bank, but needs must in order to receive funds from HMRC to my company bank account. DO NOT BANK WITH CATER ALLEN.

I've been a business account customer of Cater Allen bank for about 15 years.

They are refreshingly prompt and competent in all of their dealings, so I can wholeheartedly recommend their services.

Have just rung off after waiting 30 minutes for someone to answer which has now become standard practice for Cater Allen. Presumably Santander are reducing staff levels and I expect them to close CA soon. I am switching my account, after having been a customer since before Cater Allen, to First Direct.

Phone hang up. Tried to contact them, phone held for over half hour. Many redials no answer. Got through once to be hung up.

Payment returned with huge charges.

Don't use this bank.

Cater Allen seem to be one of the few remaining banks brave enought to offer accounts to a trust. Many other banks are de-banking trusts or refusing to open new accounts. You do need a referral to be allowed an account with CA which is a daft chicken and egg where you have to be referred by a finacial adivisor but they refuse to tell you which ones they work with. We got lucky. Now the torture of opening the account is done, all is fine. 4 stars because we finally have a bank account.

From a business account point of view if you have to contact the call centre (which used to be fast access 24/7 btw) you are on hold for >15mins before speaking to someone. You can only make a foreign payment by calling in. This bank used to be top-notch, unfortunately now it has sunk to new depths. Will be moving my business account very shortly as the business practice also makes me concerned about their viability going forward.