Reply to: New Cater Allen website

[simes]

I occasionally use a site called NextDoor which is kind of a local social networking site for news and stuff going on in your neighbourhood. Even that requires a OTC sent to your email address which seems a bit OTT given most of the stories on my feed seem to be about lost pets or someone looking for a plumber.

Hmm.

Ref Jobserve, apparently the OTC stuff is something you can switch off if you feel it is too laboursome.

And so off it went...

[unixman]

The re-registraton was a bit poor but worked eventually. One stumbling block was having to set a new user name. It said "if you are an existing customer you can continue to use your old user name". This is not wholly correct. I tried to use my old name and it was rejected for not having enough letters, numbers or similar.

The new UI is clunkier than the old, but that's par for the course. Any new portal will always be less usable, less readable, and more idiosyncratic than the last. Ever since fashion got its claws firmly into UI design, when was it - about 10 years ago? Remember the "flat" design wave that camouflaged all the buttons, reducing everyone's productivity by 10% ? And the low-contrast font debacle of 2016 or so ? Madness. At least that one disappeared without trace, thankfully.

Anyway CA is not to bad just needs a bit of polish. And they could never be accused of being slaves to fashion.

[edison]

Seems the world's going OTC nuts right now. Is it a bloody fashion?

Even Jobserve now requires you to juggle laptop and phone to input an OTC, every - time - you - logon! Just for a %$!£-ing job site!! Really?

Feeling pretty fifth rate this morning, so they got a piece of my mind about that...

I occasionally use a site called NextDoor which is kind of a local social networking site for news and stuff going on in your neighbourhood. Even that requires a OTC sent to your email address which seems a bit OTT given most of the stories on my feed seem to be about lost pets or someone looking for a plumber.

[Lance]

Having spoken to them today for other reasons, am told that all the OTC nonsense is indeed being streamlined following many people's similar feedback.

While no timeline was offered or available, it is apparently in the next scheduled update and OTC's will be used for sign ins only from non-recognised devices.

All of which means, Lance can stick his sarcasm elsewhere.

Life's too short to worry about me surely?
Definitely too short to be helping out a bank for free.

[simes]

Having spoken to them today for other reasons, am told that all the OTC nonsense is indeed being streamlined following many people's similar feedback.

While no timeline was offered or available, it is apparently in the next scheduled update and OTC's will be used for sign ins only from non-recognised devices.

All of which means, Lance can stick his sarcasm elsewhere.

[syrio]

Why are people tolerating a rubbish banking portal and a phantom service, that is just a virtual presentation of a larger bank?

I don't need to use the online service very often, and it does everything I want. Although the old website was a bit clunky, and the new one is maybe even clunkier.

They have a large / too big to fail bank behind them. They don't charge, they used to pay a useful rate of interest on balances, and their telephone service is very good. I don't ever want to have to use the telephone service, but if I am making a large payment I am forced to, and I'm not sure how this would work with Starling.

I would have probably signed up to them by now if it was possible to do so online instead of via an app on my phone.

[rogerfederer]

Why are people tolerating a rubbish banking portal and a phantom service, that is just a virtual presentation of a larger bank?

If you're like GhostofTarbera and a bit daft, feel free to use Tide or Mettle.

If you actually want protection and a good service then switch to Starling.

[ladymuck]

Er, something happened to my phone to make it go completely no signal. Once I restarted it, the OTP came in. Not really Cater Allen's fault and later I was able to get back in without a hitch.

Got to be fair.

Not sure I trust any bank that thinks SMS is secure enough for authentication. I hope that was truly one time and they use something more secure for transactions

[simes]

Seems the world's going OTC nuts right now. Is it a bloody fashion?

Even Jobserve now requires you to juggle laptop and phone to input an OTC, every - time - you - logon! Just for a %$!£-ing job site!! Really?

Feeling pretty fifth rate this morning, so they got a piece of my mind about that...

[hairymouse]

I'm still waiting for a OTP code that has never come.

Er, something happened to my phone to make it go completely no signal. Once I restarted it, the OTP came in. Not really Cater Allen's fault and later I was able to get back in without a hitch.

Got to be fair.

[simes]

I'm sure they're very grateful for your valuable input.

Rest assured I have it on good authority that they were.

But to allow you to go on with the rest of your day, I will concede the sarcasm honours to you sir.

[Lance]

You're on fire at the moment. 'founder' is still licking his wounds elsewhere.

Less 'moan', more 'constructive feedback'.

Anyway, I type with more than two fingers and all the bullets were copied and pasted from an email sent earlier direct to Cater.

I'm sure they're very grateful for your valuable input.

[simes]

Christ almighty. You’ve spent longer writing this moan than I did logging in to the new portal and setting up the link to FreeAgent.

You're on fire at the moment. 'founder' is still licking his wounds elsewhere.

Less 'moan', more 'constructive feedback'.

Anyway, I type with more than two fingers and all the bullets were copied and pasted from an email sent earlier direct to Cater.

[Lance]

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.

Mettle is OK but no FSCS protection and £10k transfer limit.
I’ll keep both thank you.

[Lance]

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.

Christ almighty. You’ve spent longer writing this moan than I did logging in to the new portal and setting up the link to FreeAgent.