CAHOOT (ABBEY BY ANOTHER NAME)

Sickofcharges · 14th March 2006, 00:22

I for the moment have two bank accts, one with Highstreet TSB the other with online Cahoot (Abbey national group) the latter I am so frustrated with it is on the verge of closure.
TSB is my longest running acct (have had some ups and downs over the years) is where I can actually make deposits over the counter when I know my acct is about to go overdrawn. My online cahoot current however is where I can only make a deposit by bank transfer, even in an situation when I realise that my acct could go overdrawn within a couple of days of checking online I cannot make over the counter deposits even in the Abbey branches, hence I still cannot prevent it because even tranferring electronically (to a different bank group) it still takes up to 5 days (more on weekends) to get money from my high street acct to my online acct

(how this takes so long I dont know especially when these days you can transfer money in a matter of hours/minutes across the world - but that is another story)

I can accept a fair charge if I had been deliberately ignorant of the state of my acct, but as I work full time in a demanding job looking after sick/dying people plus looking after a home and family my priority is not always to remember to check my accts on a daily basis (I try to do it at least every other day)

Since last July I have to date been charged £120 (4x£30) for exceeding my overdraft by as little as £6 up to a maximum of £50 (in some cases only for a few days while funds were electronically on route) and this was for exceeding overdraft only (no cheques/ d/debits etc were returned) plus a charge of £25 for a returned D/Debit again while funds were on route (transferred Wednesday afternoon- received following Wednesday - Bank holiday weekend, and I even contacted Cahoot to explain situation beforehand but that did not stop charges.

Why is it when Cahoot is part of the Abbey group I cannot simply pay enough money into the Cahoot acct via an Abbey branch to prevent me going overdrawn and thus prevent charges

maybe to do something so practical and sensible would only serve to reduce their profits and we can't have that now can we

I think it is about time the Abbey looked at and reviewed their banking system

Docubot · 14th March 2006, 00:39

You know what to do

Sickofcharges · 14th March 2006, 00:52

Thanks 4 quick reply

It would seem that word is spreading and that people are getting wise to bank practices, isn't the internet great

I for one am just starting to find out that some charges are not actually legal, but how do you begin to go about getting them back while maintaining a sense of professionalism and also by doing so does it damage your credit rating

.

Practical advice/ideas would be appreciated

joseph · 14th March 2006, 00:53

I used to work for abbey, the reason you can't pay in at a Branch is because unlike Smile/Co-op, Abbey & Cahoot do not use the same computer system. So the branch staff have no access to your account. It is exactly the same with Cater Allen. You can however pay in cash or cheques at an Abbey Link but it does still take a few days.

I'm not making excuses I'm just giving you the facts.

Docubot · 14th March 2006, 01:00

There's no reason why paying cash into any branch should take more than about 5 mins - if it can happen in Sweden and Australia it can happen here.

I thought we were in the 21st century, not the 12th.

Anyway, have a read around the FAQ's - your questions have been answered there already.

richardc · 14th March 2006, 01:05

Yoy obviously know the system. Why when I'm paying soes my money disppeare instantaneously but bot appear at the recipient for 5 days? When I pay in, why does it take 5 or more days to reach my account? Are the Banks taking the p***?

A

joseph · 14th March 2006, 01:35

When you pay in at an Abbeylink it takes a few days because they dont empty the machine daily and all deposits have to be verified. You'd be amazed the number of people who put the decimal place wrong and pay in £1000 instead of £100 etc...

As for electronic BACS transfers, the whole thing is a money making scam. The Banks lend out the money to each other to make a profit.

Sickofcharges · 14th March 2006, 15:17

Because of the delays in getting the money from my salary acct to Cahoot to pay D/Debits I have now decided to move all D/Debits to my salary acct so with no transactions on my Cahoot acct they cannot sting me with charges and it will end up unused and most likely closed, their loss at the end of the day

Re the Smile acct, do I understand that you can pay into your acct over the counter in a Co-Op bank

lynzpower · 14th March 2006, 15:20

Re Smile
you caqn certainly make deposits over the counter at post offices and cheques to clear ( only done it once, new account) take about 3 days. Pretty impressive by bank standards

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