Cater Allen: private bank accounts, service and protection

Cater Allen is a UK private bank that offers personal current and savings accounts, and it is best known for a current account that pays tiered interest rather than for branches or cards. It trades as Cater Allen Private Bank and Cater Allen Professional¹. Its personal terms took effect on 28 April 2026².

The account is deliberately narrow. Cater Allen does not provide overdrafts, so the account will not usually fall below zero². Savings accounts with the bank cannot make payments by debit card, cheque, standing order or Direct Debit². Accounts can be held jointly with up to three other people². The bank communicates in English only².

If you are weighing up a private bank account against a high street current account, the current accounts guide sets out how the two compare, and the savings guide covers how interest-bearing accounts work.

What Cater Allen Private Bank offers

Cater Allen's personal banking is built around current and savings accounts rather than a wide product range. The bank's permissions cover accepting deposits and entering into regulated credit agreements as lender, excluding high-cost short-term credit, bill of sale agreements and home collected credit¹. In practice, the personal side of the business is deposit-taking: money in, money out, and interest paid on balances.

Two features shape what the account is like to use. The first is that there are no overdrafts, so a payment that would take the balance below zero is not covered by a borrowing facility². The second is that savings accounts are payment-restricted: no debit card, cheque, standing order or Direct Debit payments from them². That makes the current account the working account and the savings account a place to hold money rather than spend it.

Cater Allen also operates under the name Cater Allen Professional, which points to business and professional customers alongside private ones¹. The bank's previous names were Sheppards Moneybrokers and Cater Allen Bank¹.

For a wider view of what different banks offer, the banks directory lists providers by type.

The Private Bank Account: a current account that pays tiered interest

The headline feature of the Cater Allen current account is that it pays interest on a tiered basis, meaning the rate applied depends on the balance. The bank publishes its current tiers and rates on its own site, and those figures change, so the place to check today's rate is Cater Allen itself rather than a third party.

What the terms do set out is how the account behaves around the edges. Because there is no overdraft, the balance will not usually go below zero². Cheques are subject to an age limit: the bank may not pay in a cheque that is over six months old². If you pay in a sterling cheque on a working day, interest starts from the next working day; pay one in on a non-working day and interest starts from two working days². The money itself is available at the end of the next working day after you pay it in, or at the end of two working days for a cheque paid in on a non-working day².

Joint accounts are allowed with up to three other people unless specific conditions say otherwise². That matters for protection, because each eligible holder has their own FSCS limit rather than sharing one.

If you are comparing this with interest-paying current accounts elsewhere, the current accounts guide explains how tiered interest and account fees usually work.

Who Cater Allen is for

The account suits a particular kind of customer rather than everyone. Someone who wants a simple deposit account, does not need an overdraft, and is comfortable banking by phone and online rather than in a branch will find the shape of it familiar. Someone who relies on a debit card, an arranged overdraft or a branch counter will find the fit poor, because the bank does not provide overdrafts and its savings accounts cannot make card or Direct Debit payments².

Joint arrangements are straightforward: up to four holders in total on one account². That is more than many banks allow, and it can suit family or shared-household arrangements where several people contribute to one pot.

The bank communicates in English only, which is worth knowing if you need correspondence in another language². It does offer alternative formats for customers who need them, covered below.

Choosing between account types is mostly about matching the account to how you actually move money. The guide to choosing a bank account sets out the questions worth asking before opening one.

Banking with Cater Allen day to day

Day-to-day banking with Cater Allen runs on phone and online channels, with published cut-off times that determine when a payment arrives. The times below come from the bank's personal terms and apply to payments made by phone or online².

Cheques follow their own timetable. A sterling cheque paid in on a working day earns interest from the next working day and the money is available at the end of the next working day; paid in on a non-working day, interest starts from two working days and the money is available at the end of two working days². A foreign currency or overseas cheque paid in on a collect basis usually takes two to eight weeks, though it can be more or less, and one paid in on a negotiate basis is normally credited after six working days².

You can stop a standing order, Direct Debit or other future-dated electronic payment up to the end of the working day before it is due, and a cheque before the recipient's bank starts processing it². The bank keeps payment records for up to five years after an account is closed, so you can ask about payments you made in that period².

Moving your account to Cater Allen without the Current Account Switch Service

The Current Account Switch Service is the standard way to move a UK current account. It moves your money and payments automatically, redirects incoming payments, and refunds any interest or charges if something goes wrong⁴. It works for joint accounts provided you are switching to another joint account and all account holders agree, and you can switch a sole account to a joint account elsewhere⁵. It cannot be used to switch from a joint account to a sole account⁶. You can switch even if you are overdrawn⁷.

Cater Allen accounts are opened directly with the bank rather than through the switching service, so a move is arranged with Cater Allen itself. That means the automatic redirection of incoming payments is not part of the process, and you need to tell the people and organisations that pay you your new details. The practical sequence is:

1. Open the Cater Allen account and get the account details.
2. List every payment going in and out of your old account, including salary, benefits, pensions and subscriptions.
3. Give the new details to each payer and set up each Direct Debit and standing order with Cater Allen.
4. Check a full statement cycle on both accounts before closing the old one.
5. Close the old account once everything has moved.

Cater Allen's terms set out how payments in and out are handled, including the cut-off times above, which is what you need to know when timing a move². If you are moving a joint account, remember that up to four people can hold a Cater Allen account jointly².

Scams, fraud and getting your money back

Cater Allen states plainly that it will never call you and ask you to move your money to keep it safe³. That matches the rule across UK banking: your bank, the police and the FCA will never ask you to move money to a safe account⁸. If someone calls claiming to be from the bank and asks you to move money, the call is a scam.

If you think you have paid a criminal or shared your financial information, contact your bank immediately⁹. For a lost or stolen card, Cater Allen tells customers to call 159 to be connected securely to the bank, or 0800 092 3300³. The 159 number connects you to your own bank's fraud team, so it is worth saving before you need it.

Scams arrive by phone, email, text message, online and in person¹⁰. They are simply ways to con you out of your money, and there are many different types¹¹. Common patterns include criminals contacting you to gain your trust and then convincing you to make a payment or give access to your accounts, setting up accounts or loans in your name, or accessing your accounts directly to steal money¹². Investment scams carry a particular follow-up risk: criminals may contact you again pretending they can recover your money for a fee⁹.

On payments, Cater Allen's position is clear. If a payment goes to the wrong account because the bank made a mistake, it will refund you². If the payment went wrong because you gave the wrong account details, it will not². For unrecognised transactions, checking your transactions and reporting anything you do not recognise quickly usually leads to a refund if it is fraud⁴.

If a scam has cost you money, the scams and fraud guide covers how to report it and what protection applies.

Making a complaint to Cater Allen

Cater Allen does not charge you to investigate a complaint, and it is not liable for any fees a third party might charge you³. The bank publishes the number of complaints it receives every six months, and it reports the same information to the FCA³. In the first half of 2026, covering 1 January to 30 June 2026, Cater Allen received fewer than 500 complaints³.

Timescales depend on what the complaint is about. Complaints relating to payments in or out of your account have a 15-day resolution target, extended to 35 days in exceptional circumstances³. All other complaints have up to 56 days, though the bank says it will send a final response as soon as its investigation is complete³. If a complaint can be resolved within three business days, the bank will tell you formally and explain your right to take it to the Financial Ombudsman Service³.

If you are unhappy with the final response, you can take the complaint to the Financial Ombudsman Service, and the deadline for doing so is within six months of the date on the final response³. The ombudsman is free to use¹³.

Complaints about how your personal information has been handled go to the Information Commissioner's Office, which takes complaints online¹⁴. Complaints about a claims management company follow a different route: ask the company for its complaints procedure, raise the issue with it first, and keep a record¹⁵.

How the Financial Ombudsman Service can help

The Financial Ombudsman Service exists to help you sort out a complaint with a financial business¹⁶. It handles banking complaints including account closures, disputed transactions, IT failures and problems with switching services¹⁷. It can consider complaints from consumers, and also from microenterprises and small and medium-sized businesses¹⁸. For investments, it can help where the business you are complaining about is regulated by the FCA¹⁹.

Before the ombudsman will look at a complaint, the business normally has to have had the chance to resolve it. For a current account, that means contacting customer services, making a formal complaint, and giving the bank its eight weeks to investigate and give a final response⁴. If you still do not agree, or the bank does not respond in time, the ombudsman can take it on⁴.

The ombudsman has an online complaint checker that tells you whether it can help and what to do next²⁰. If it can, you fill in the complaint form²¹. The service is free, and you do not need a claims management company to use it.

Where a card payment has gone wrong and a chargeback claim has failed, you can complain to the ombudsman if your card provider says it will not appeal to the trader's bank²². Complaints about how a lender or debt collection agency has handled your account also fall within its remit, following the lender's own complaints procedure first²³.

FSCS protection: separate from Santander

Money held with Cater Allen is protected by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme, and that protection applies at firm level, which means it can be shared across brands operating under the same authorisation²⁵. Cater Allen is a separate bank, listed by the Bank of England among banks incorporated in the UK that are authorised to accept deposits²⁶. Its deposits are therefore protected in their own right, separately from Santander's.

Cater Allen's own terms say that for a joint account held by two eligible depositors, the maximum that could be claimed would be the current FSCS limit each². The FSCS protection checker assumes a joint account has two account holders with an equal share²⁵.

Two limits are worth knowing. FSCS can only protect money held by UK branches of banks and building societies²⁷.

Protection is not limited to deposits. FSCS protects mortgage advice²⁸, and it covers some insurance claims, though not all: marine, credit and aviation insurance claims are not eligible²⁹. Investment protection works differently again, and the FSCS guide to investment protection explains how³⁰.

You can check whether your money is protected using the FSCS protection checker²⁵.