New Cater Allen website

[syrio]

What do you think of the new Cater Allen website? Anyone having any problems?

I've just wasted the last hour trying to log in and set / reset my password to meet their requirements, being hampered by the fact that my password manager couldn't recognise the URL and they don't allow pasting into the password fields. I couldn't manage to set a decent reasonably complex password.

Once in it is a bit clunky. For example, every time I select a new option I have to select the account from a dropdown menu - but I only have one account.

If anything I'd say it is worse than the old website, although at least there is the option for e statements instead of paper.

I'm thinking about moving to Starling again.

[Amanensia]

I'm thinking about moving to Starling again.

That's what I did when they first did this new website thing a year or two back, locking me out of my account for a couple of weeks in the process.

Starling has been roughly a trillion times more usable. Night and day.

[NowPermOutsideUK]

OTP requested three times to transfer £1 to my own name. I prefer the old style

Still they have faster payment finally

[filthy1980]

just logged into and reset all details

went pretty smoothly for

UI is a bit clunky though, but faster payments work which is a good thing

[cs02rm0]

I didn't know this was coming and thought I was being phished.

I'm pretty certain they didn't ask for a full password before - makes me wonder if they needed it to rehash it / encrypt data that was insufficiently protected, or if it wasn't being hashed at all given they were asking for certain characters. Preventing pasting into password fields and reducing the entropy of submitted passwords by requiring the existence of certain character classes I thought went out a long time ago too.

And when you finally get in, the new interface is ghastly. At least before I could just click through to the account and traverse through transactions. The new site seems to be trying to give people RSI.

I didn't realise Starling did business accounts. I've got a personal account with them that I haven't used much but the experience did seem much smoother, perhaps it's time to make the switch.

[simes]

It is unbelievably clunky.

In this day and age whereby it is so easy to stand on the shoulders of giants which, in this case, would be a perfectly working and streamlined site, why on earth they couldn't just copy the processes of one such example is beyond me.

I sent the below feedback which I was promised would be worked on but, Covid was chewing up resources elsewhere.

1. When there is only one account from which to choose, please can this field come pre-populated?
2. Can the boxes to complete with PAC codes etc. be pre-populated with the cursor…?
3. Can the cursor auto move from PAC boxes to Password box?
4. When paying Payees, please can the reference be manageable from the Paying page? Currently the reference, or invoice number, is that which was for the previous occurrence. I would prefer Not to have to alter the Payee information every time just for an interchanging Invoice Number
5. The inputting of the entire PAC code is a bit excessive – especially as it has already been input as part of the access to the account.
6. The OTC – could this be only for the setting up of new payees. An OTC for every-single-payment is exhausting.
7. Sometimes when trying to make a Payment, none of the Payees are listed. The list is blank…?? This is completely random but equally very annoying and time consuming to arrive at a populated list of Payees from which to choose.
8. The Download a statement does not allow to Save as a CSV. Can this be changed, especially as you don’t have OpenBanking Feeds set up yet. Indeed, the Download a Statement seems not to work as of 1st April.

While OpenBanking has been resolved, since then, it appears they've Upped the number of times OTC's are used. It is a right PITA.

Anyway, this thread has suitably reminded me to ask for an update, which has now been sent.

[JHamp82]

I was with Cater Allen for a few years and always found the portal terrible.

Recently opened and account with Mettle and they have been excellent so far.

[Eirikur]

I didn't know this was coming and thought I was being phished.

They only sent like 200 messages by snailmail, email and text. First they had to postpone it a couple of weeks ago and was rescheduled for last weekend.
Logged in this morning for the first time onto the new portal and went quite smooth. I don't like the new portal though.

[Amanensia]

I'm quite surprised to hear it's just happening now. I went onto the new system about 18 months ago. Maybe I was a guinea pig. Doesn't sound like they learnt anything in those 18 months though!

[Maslins]

Like Amanensia said, ours changed quite a few months ago.

It's not the greatest online banking experience, no. In particular simes's point (6) grates with me. If making lots of payments it's very painful, sufficiently so that it was a key reason we set up a Monzo account to do the multiple low value payments from.

Over the last decade or so I've had experience with a LOT of banks...and Cater Allen's support is very good. Yes if everything runs as smoothly as you'd hope, this is outweighed by the painful automated systems. However when there's a bigger problem I've had far more luck getting things resolved with CA than with some of the biggest banks.