Cater Allen Avis 

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.

Very poor website, badly thought out and poorly implemented, and there's no UK app. I'll be leaving at the end of this FY

The worst website I have ever had to use. At best it is clumsy and painful. At worst it is impossible to even log on. It is inconsistent and unreliable. Unbelievable there is no banking app, especially if it is owned by Santander. I will be closing my account if there isn't an improvement very very quickly.

The call centre staff are lovely, this does not make up for the appalling website. It is not user friendly or logical in the slightest. You can cancel DD and SO at the weekend, but cannot create new ones? Do they not realise people weork 24/7?? You cannot pay checks in online, and it is the most illogical website I have ever used. Its great that the account is free, but I am getting to the point I might pay...

No stars if I could. Even the pleasant and helpful call centre staff aren't worth putting up with the atrocious website. Can't make euro payments online (and call centre staff aren't available after 5pm), the login and payment OTP reqs are ridiculous (can't mark a device trusted: OTP required for payments to existing beneficiaries, like my personal account and HMRC, together with annoying and patronising scam messages - HMRC are scum rather than scam...) - slow loading, I'll stop there. I've been with them a decade but this has finally made me get my act together and move to Starling.

I’ve just joined Cater Allen, and cannot believe this website is NEW. The UX is atrocious, nothing is in a logical place and even the most basic of tasks are difficult to complete. How in 2021 a bank does not have a mobile app is also beyond me, do better.

Possibly the worst (new) website that I have ever experienced. Account closed and moving to Starling Business.

It has been almost a week now since I am unable to access my account through online banking. It’s unbelievable that in these days a bank will have their website not working for such a long time. Sort your website out! This starts to become ridiculous

The new website is not only awful with no logical flow - its been down for the last 2 days!
I work in IT and struggle to understand the illogical journey and unnecessary entries required to pay something as simple as a VAT bill. Having checks to make sure I definitely want to pay today is ridiculous.
The old site wasn't the best but it was simple - this new site is like someone gave a 7 year old the option to add all the bells, whistles and sprinkles possible to a website. Please sort it out, I want a functional website where I'm not wasting my time!

I am an expat and CA recently closed my account because of an internal review and the fact I am not resident in the UK. While I have no complaints about the service received when I had an account, I wasn't exactly pleased with the account handling matter and subsequent closure. I was a CA client for over 15 years and it would be nice to think that this would have factored into their review decision more. Also surprised to see that there are more negative comments here than positive. Seems like they should be taking these concerns a bit more seriously.

I have done my business banking with Cater Allen for almost 20 years now and they have been universally brilliant. If I had banked with a high street bank over that time I would have paid a fortune in fees, whereas until recently I was earning significant amounts in interest on my business current account. There were a few teething issues with the new website, but they were quickly resolved. I have never, ever waited more than a couple of seconds for a login text. The staff have always been absolutely brilliant on the phone. I just don't recognise any of these negative reviews as being the same bank that I have experienced!

I have used Cater Allen for my business account since Robert Fleaming shut . Never paid anything in fees in over 10 years. Don't know of any business accounts that can say that. Have to stay in credit though, but that suits me fine. Don't understand all the low ratings

Reading the reviews, I wonder if everyone is banking with the same company as me...? My business has had held 3 different currency accounts since 2019 and I selected Cater Allen, due to their zero fees (I have no idea where this transactional fee comment below comes from) and ability to receive payments in EURO and transfer them into GBP to pay salary and costs. My business was one of the first onto the "new" system.
Initially, I found probably around 4 or 5 bugs, all of which were fixed within days once I reported them. The current website, is easy to access, the OTP authentication comes through within 1sec, not the 10mins described below. Most payments and batch runs can be done from it. Account transactions can be downloaded in .csv, which is what SAGE Accounting requires. To swap from .csv to excel is just a file type in Excel.
I use the telephone services frequently for currency transactions and find the staff brilliant. Compared to having to deal with high street bank staff, especially in a small town, they are AWESOME!
Why not 5stars?
There is some room for improvement. On the website, you cant make transfers in the currency of the transferring account. ie USD-GBP, where you state you want to transfer USD100. Online you have to state the equivalent GBP amount. Which is not great.
Prior to the governments change to open banking in March 2020, the "new" website, could be connected to SAGE for automatic account updating, a godsend for all businesses big and small. Since the change to Open Banking, Cater Allen no longer supports this facility, whilst most banks do, including parent Santander. My businesses transactions are high value and limited volume, so manual upload I can just about accept, for a high transaction volume business, I would not. This I feel is the biggest weakness of the Cater Allen platform.
To conclude, staff are amazing online and on the telephone. The OTP in my experience is always faster than I can pick up my mobile and most transactional work online is fine. Website is missing Open Banking connectivity for GBP (major negative) and it is not so easy for internal currency movements online, I use the telephone service.

The new website does not allow you to download a transaction listing into an excel file, only a csv or pdf.
With the old website you could download into excel. This is completely unacceptable and unusable.

Cater Allen describes their new website as offering improved functionality.

It does not . It offers improvised, sub-standard functionality that is not fit for purpose.

Get it fixed or be ready to downsize as clients go elsewhere.

I've read the other recent reviews and now have the cold comfort of not being the only one who has found the new website unusable. I've been a customer of Cater Allen and its predecessors for 22 years but am now investigating moving to another bank. The problem? Yes, the appalling new website. I gave it a couple of months to allow for teething problems, but it still continues to be unfit for purpose; the worst aspect is the authentication by SMS which can take up to 10 minutes, or sometimes never, to arrive (SMSs from other websites arrive at the same phone within a few seconds). With separate authentication for each payment, a simple visit to make a couple of payments has taken 40 minutes. Today I cannot access my account at all, which is absurd, but merely inconvenient, but one day I could miss a payment deadline

Absolutely rubbish. Opened an account 5 weeks ago. Didn't receive any welcome letter or bank card/account number. Called them and was told they couldn't give me my details over the phone and they didn't know why my stuff wasn't sent. Opened an account with an internet business bank instead. Dont waste your time with Cater Allen.

I have banked with Cater Allen since 2011 without any issues until their recent online banking "upgrade". I now find that even trying to accomplish the simplest of actions such as accessing my account is often impossible. The frustration this causes is not any fault of my own. However I do strongly feel that I am being inconvenienced for their incompetence and shoddy management of the bank. They no longer deserve to have any customers. I intend to better use my time looking for another bank account, rather than suffer this one. Steer clear of Cater Allen