Some charities using CAF Bank are calling for compensation and are considering moving to another financial services provider as they continue to experience issues with its recently updated service.
After upgrading its online banking system on 9 June, CAF Bank was flooded with calls from many of its more than 14,000 customers struggling to use the new service.
Several charity leaders complained on social media about struggling to access support in the following weeks and expressed concerns about paying staff.
CAF Bank has attempted to fix issues raised and apologised to customers for the inconvenience they have experienced.
It has also employed extra staff to respond to customers’ issues, which has contributed to wait times for support reducing from over four hours to “under five minutes”.
However, two charities have told Civil Society they are still experiencing issues, particularly with processing bulk payments, which is causing staff to spend many extra hours trying to transfer money to staff, beneficiaries and suppliers.
Calls for compensation
Emma Pears, founder and chief officer of SELFA, said the children’s charity is considering switching banks as the additional time staff are spending working around the issues is becoming costly.
Continuing bulk payment glitches are a particular concern, she said, with the Yorkshire-based charity using these regularly to process expenses and payroll.
“We reckon probably the amount of time we’ve had to sort out it’s cost us probably well over £1,000 for a small charity,” she said.
“I think there should be some kind of compensation fund, because they’ve really messed up here.
“And I think if it was a major financial institution, we would be hearing a lot more about it. And that’s what really annoys me. Nobody’s being really accountable for this.
“But we’re still facing issues, and I’m like: ‘Come on, guys, our good will is wearing really thin here.’”
Jayne Ison, head of finance and business development at Support Staffordshire, said her organisation relies on bulk payment for some of the around 300 transactions a month it processes.
It has experienced issues with paying its more than 70 staff in each month since the new service came in, Ison said, which had caused stress for the charity’s employees.
“I’ve been working 43 years, and this is the worst I’ve ever known in terms of stress and lack of control or feeling that you can’t get hold of your funds,” she said.
Ison added that her charity had requested compensation from CAF Bank and was talking to other banks about a potential move.
CAF Bank ‘committed to’ addressing issues
CAF Bank’s chief operating officer Dina Henry said: “Re-platforming to a new banking system has been a significant, but essential undertaking to further the specialist support we provide to the charity and voluntary sector.
“The new online service provides additional security, the convenience to make payments throughout the day, and the ability to view account activity in one place.
“Since the launch of our new online service, we have provided both customers and sector partners with updates on how we are resolving issues that could only be identified in a live, working environment. This includes a dedicated resources page to guide customers through the process of making bulk payments.
“We continue to help customers to navigate online banking tasks on the new service, with thousands of transactions totalling millions of pounds being made daily.
“We have also increased the number of colleagues available to support customers. Average call wait times have fallen to under five minutes and we’re responding to the vast majority of emails within 24 hours.”
“As a bank that is wholly owned by a charity, the work of our customers is central to everything we do.
“I am very sorry for the inconvenience caused to our customers while we make improvements to our online service and we are all committed to working with them to address any challenges they have experienced. I want to thank them for their patience while we work to get this right.”
CAF Bank added that it can be contacted on 03000123456 between 9am and 5pm Monday to Friday or via email at [email protected].
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