Was until yesterday a Cahoot customer, in so far as I've had a flexible loan account with them for nearly a decade. Email came yesterday informing me that they were changing my loan limit and telling me to go online and see what limit I now have, then the usual drivel about this doesn't reflect on my credit worthiness etc. My limit had been reduced from £7000 to £94. This isn't really a problem for me as my loan at the time was £84. I use(d) the account as a source of funds if I needed to get cash quickly for projects, without having to go through the rigmarole of applying for a new loan. Just disgusted at the attitude of the bank to its customer. I've closed the account, and am currently moving my holdings from any Santander company, I've decided they'll not earn another penny from me. One star - only cos I can't give zero - so consider it to be minus one!

Posted by Mike Doyle on the 13th January 2010

I have been with Cahoot since 2001. No issues at all. Their website is responsive, functional and really intuitive. I have deposited cheques by post using their supplied envelopes and they're normally credited in around 3 days. Setting up additional accounts (such as savings) is a doddle. My only gripe with Cahoot is their continued lack of support for Faster Payments. Cahoot neither support the sending or receiving of FPs, meaning transfers to other accounts usually take a full 3 working days. In the world of electronic banking, this is crazy. Abbey (their parent bank) appear to be very slow on the uptake where Faster Payments are concerned, even though they were one of the original backers of the FP scheme. Cahoot used to offer an excellent Flexible Loan account, but increased interest rates dramatically across the board for all customers, effectively rendering the product useless. It's no longer offered to new customers. Cahoot also used to offer a Credit Card. This is also no longer available either.

Posted by Paul on the 23rd September 2009

Went through a period of very bad service but now very responsive. One issue they continue doing is to notify customers within a couple of days or after they make a change to their terms and conditions. Their latest change arrived 3 weeks after the effective date of the change. Not very clever. If one uses their deposit facility via post offices expect it to take 2 weeks before the credit appears on your account.

Posted by John Messingham on the 22nd December 2007

My favourite for personal banking. They are 'no nonsense' and easy to use, the charges are not as bad as many current accounts. Not great for cash deposits, as they don't have branches so you have to use post offices or Abbey National.

Posted by Jude Rawlins on the 3rd June 2007