"The kid's got Cahoot" - Not this kid (Cahoot)

Member Name: sdavis1970

Product:	Cahoot
Date:	29/01/03 (164 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: £250 interest free overdraft, ummm... that's it

Disadvantages: No customer service that I've seen, £1.50 minimum charge for withdrawing cash, No branch banking (?)

Being a bit of an internet junkie, if there's anything I need the net is always the first place I look. CDs, books, games... and bank accounts. I'm fed up with paying Lloyds TSB £5 every month for 'extras' that I don't want, and I'd also like a bigger interest free overdraft than the hugely generous £50 they give me.

So I thought I'd check out some of the internet based banks out there, to see if any of them took my fancy. Among others, I went to the Cahoot website. It all looks pretty good at first glance, until you take a closer look.

Here's some of the not-so-good bits I've found out about Cahoot:

As far as I can tell from the website, they don't offer a branch banking facility. I know they don't have any branches, but other online banks (eg Smile) allow you to do all the things you should be able to do. For example paying in cheques, or making large cash withdrawals (just how DO you do that if you're a Cahoot customer?)

The other thing I noticed was that for cash withdrawals from a hole in the wall they charge you 1.5% (or a minimum of £1.50) for each withdrawal! Who in their right mind would want an account like that?

Perhaps I'm missing the point, please feel free to correct me here if I'm wrong... but £1.50 every single time you take out some cash? Do me a favour!

So, not wanting to dismiss them out of hand, I sent them an email from the *very* annoying "Contact Us" part of the website. It says "Would you like to know more about", followed by 3 columns of different subjects that are all 'clickable'. Whichever one you click on, all it does is fire up your email client with an email to "contact.us@cahoot.com" - what is the point of that?

So anyway, I digress. I emailed them with my questions, mainly because I was tempted by their £250 interest and fee free overdraft facility (but only
if I'd misread the bit about the £1.50 withdrawal charge!).

Two days have now passed since I sent the email (and a follow up email yesterday), and I've not had so much as an automated reply from Cahoot.

Needless to say, they have been scrubbed off my list of potential new banks. What kind of internet bank can't even be bothered to respond to what could be a potential customer?

Not the kind that I want to trust my money with, that's for sure.

Summary: