Hey,
I was looking at Cater Allen Accounts and it seems that they have removed the Minimum Income and Minimum Balance from the account.
I have looked in all of the documents available across the entire website and I dont see anything about it anymore?
So can anyone just open a account with them now?
The only eligibility is that you need to be 18 years old.
I’ve given it a go but 
I’m doubtful
I’m gonna give it a go and just see how it turns out.
As looking at all of the PDFs and Documents they offer on the site, I don’t see anything about Minimum Income and Minimum Balance.
So I mean its worth a shot!
Only Fee Information I could find is this one.
Excuse my ignorance:
What would be the benefit of having an account with these over a regular high street/app based bank (ala NatWest, Barclays, Monzo, Chase, etc.)?
I already have all of them xD
Filling it in now!
Exactly!
You’d be displeased that their debit card is Visa, not Mastercard!
They used to be able to introduce you to Amex cards, if you wanted a credit card, although I’m not sure if they still offer that. Their debit card used to be “deferred debit”, where it acted a bit like a charge card (all charges bundled and charged to your account at the end of the month) but that feature was removed a while ago.
Nowadays, they are similar to high level Santander (Santander Select and Santander Private Banking) just without an app.
Their USP is specialist banking for trusts, executor’s accounts, etc and also they are the only part of Santander that offers currency accounts (in Euros and US Dollars). I believe there is no branch access at Santander, as Cater Allen is largely run separately but does share some group back-office functions.
There is a freephone telephone line to call them, and the ability to send and receive secure messages through internet banking.
You can have a chequebook, paying-in book and debit card (if you want); currency accounts only offer a debit card and don’t support cheques.
The account shows on your credit report as a standard Santander account.
Well I can deal with a Visa. Its not my personal preference but I can deal with it!
Supposedly, the benefit would be better service in general.
The fringe benefits would be: access to currency accounts, possible requirement for niche features as I explained above which other banks couldn’t fulfil, unusual banking brand, unusual debit card - which would please card collectors.
@N26throwaway Do you have a Cater Allen account?
The other big benefit is that if you do have an accountant or independent financial advisor to manage your affairs, Cater Allen will deal directly with them on your behalf - with your permission. This is not routinely available at “normal” banks.
As a Card Collector, I would be very pleased!
Does anybody know what the published pay in requirements used to be? Just because they aren’t published doesn’t mean they aren’t still enforced.
There was a £5,000 minimum balance most recently. But they used to have a “Sterling Bank Account”, with no specific requirements, alongside the “Private Bank Account”.
It looks like they may have removed requirements from the Private Bank Account now that the Sterling Bank Account is no longer available.
That’s what I can see as well. I know that they used to have a Minimum Balance. But that was displayed on their site and in PDFs.
But now I see nothing about it at all!
It’s difficult to know how much of a change in policy it really is, as they may simply be declining applicants who they don’t think will keep significant balances.
The account is still subject to status and only available after a credit check. We don’t know what criteria they are assessing the credit data against.
One quirk of Cater Allen is that they don’t offer overdrafts, at all, so I doubt they’d want to take on anybody who they felt was at-risk of going into an unauthorised overdraft!
