TheBoySaunders.com

For a while now I’ve had a couple of thousand pounds burning a hole in my pocket that I’ve considered investing. So why not a high-interest saving account?

Moneysupermarket.com’s two top picks were for ICICI Bank at 5.15% and a Cahoot savings account at 4.85%. A quick scan around the Interweb led me to dismiss the former - bad customer service, fluctuating interest rates and the fact that they are a new and, potentially unstable service on these shores not least amongst my reasons.

 And so… the kid decided to get Cahoot.

Now I’m not exaggerating when I said that all their marketing information centred around the fact that their interest rates were higher than most and, being a fairly cautious kind of chap I read the small print before clicking ‘proceed’. So, I was perturbed to say the least to get an email the next day saying that the rates were coming down to 4.55% effective immediately.

The following email was sent :

It seems very strange (and somewhat un-ethical) to change the advertised rates one day after opening the account! I read the small print carefully before clicking ‘proceed’ and saw no mention of this impending change.

Could whomever receives this explain why I was not informed of the rates change before signing up for the account?

Regards

Phil Saunders

And the following reply received :

Dear Mr. Saunders,

Thank you for contacting cahoot.

I can confirm that an account was not opened for you yesterday, an application for a savings account was only made yesterday you still are required to sign documents and send in ID before the account can be opened.

I can also confirm that an email was sent to you once you made your application to confirm to you that the rate will/has changed.

If you require any further assistance please do not hesitate to contact us again.

Kind regards,
Stephen Shaw,
cahoot

Well, Mr Shaw, you condescending, snotty git. ‘I can confirm’ that I have now opened up a savings account with my bank whom, whilst offering slightly less attractive rates, have never sold me anything on false advertising and have always provided decent customer service. The whole process was done online in a few minutes, without demanding copies of household bills, bank statements and wage slips (unlike Cahoot).

‘I can also confirm’ that I have severe doubts about putting my money with a company who provide this level of customer service before they’ve even got any of my money. What will they be like after I’ve paid them? I would like to suggest that Cahoot putting dog crap through customer’s letterboxes is an unlikely event; I suspect it is not. 

To compound my annoyance, it didn’t take too much investigation to reveal that the rates change had been well known for a few months - Cahoot just didn’t see fit to let potential customers know. Well, Cahoot, you won’t be hearing from me again, as I’m not going to dignify that email with a response. I dearly hope that you ring me at some point in the future to see why I’m not putting any money into my as-yet-unopened account, as I’ll be delighted to tell you.

Tossers.

Hmmm. That was cathartic.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 2nd, 2006 at 5:43 am and is filed under Stuff What Angers the Blood. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.