I had a situation where I knew a payment would go out on a Monday. On the Friday I called cater Allen to pay an instant payment over the phone with my debit card. Most banks do this. Not Cater Allen!
I was advised I could do a Chaps payment from my current account at a cost of £25. I figured paying £25 is better than paying £30. On the Monday I informed Cater Allen that I was making a Chaps payment and to put a note on the system. I did the transaction and thought all was well.
Even though the money went in on the same banking day Cater Allen bounced it and charged me £30.
I called them up to see if the could waive it and they couldnt. So now I'm £55 down for trying to do the right thing. They are inflexible and charge too much for very little service. Nothing beats being able to walk into a real bricks and mortar bank. Online banking is fine for some things but 100% online banking is a handicap.
I would not recommend Cater Allen.

Great telephone and general service.
Now a website too, though it needs a little spit an polish.

Using their pre-paid mail service has resulted in two vital pieces of mail disappearing. I wanted to remove a signatory from the account and I sent off the mandate. They told me to fill in section one and that would be fine. Leave the rest blank they said as We were existing signatories and it wasn't necessary to fill out the info they already had.

Weeks later they respond saying that we didn't fill out section 3 *sigh*. So we filled it out and mailed it off. Two weeks later and they still haven't received the mandate. When I was setting up the account they lost a bank statement and its taking so long and is painfully slow that I cant operate my business finances effectively. The business account requires two signatories to sign cheques. This is a major problem as the previous signatory was fired in February.

My advice, steer well clear of Cater Allen

I have banked with Cater Allan (or Flemings as they used to be called) for nearly 10 years. They used to be free free free, but slowly they are adding hidden charges. £10 per month if you go below the minimum £5000 balance, and now new charges, including £1.50 to pay credit in. The time has come to look elsewhere.

You get what you pay for - £10 per month if the balance is below £5,000, but top notch personal service in any event. I have found Cater Allen to be both helpful and sensible when dealing with any problems regarding my business bank account.

Cater Allen charge you £10 per month when your business bank account balance falls below £5000.

They charged us an extra £20 out of the blue after we had informed them that we were closing our account with them and moving elsewhere.

Unsuitable for small business.

Cater Allen is one of the rare banks where you can have accounts, and most importantly, credit cards in 3 different currencies. Thereby saving substantial exchange rate charges. The interest rates on credit balances aren't very exciting though, and they expect you to maintain a reasonable credit balance on all accounts.

I had a bad experience with the cater Allen Business Bank Account, after banking with them for over 7 years, most of which was good. I had a real big disaster! My business deal worth a large sum of money fell through because these guys could not open a dollar account in time. They had advised us incorrectly of the forms to complete, and then they refused to accept any responsibility. We was given different advice by different staff members, and nobody really knew what they were doing.

This cost our business a lot of time, money and damaged our reputation with one of our biggest clients. Do Cater Allen care? No! The first thing they try to do is cover their own backs.

Valuable lesson... Free banking is not always good for your business if it is not backed by adequate customer service and procedures.

I think the above says it all about the Cater Allen Business Bank Account. I now have the hassle of changing my bank, and all because I was not making them enough money.

I have used the Cater Allen Private Bank service for four years. I am a 'light' user, with no overdraft and a low number of transactions. The service has been good throughout and the interest rates still reasonable although not as high as they have been.