The charity I work for has been one of the many impacted by the recent change in CAF Bank’s system. It’s been extremely frustrating – to say the least – spending hours on the helpline, working through the changes and waiting for technical corrections. The last blow came when the connection with Quickbooks was finally restored: while our current account is now updated on QB, it appears that open banking rules do not make connectivity of non-payment accounts (such as savings) mandatory. We’ve been told that there is no plan to change this. This will not work for us and we’re looking to switch to another bank. 

I’ve seen previous posts asking for feedback about other banks for charities and here comes another one: we’re exploring the pros and cons for Unity Trust and Co-operative. If you currently bank – or have done so in the past – with either of them, what would be your top ‘pro’ and top ‘con’, if any?

Unity Trust: the monthly charge of £6 is not great, but many banks have charges anyway. However 15p per transaction for turnover of over £100k is not ideal. They seem to offer good interest rate for savings account at the moment.

Co-operative: there are no monthly charges (for now!), which makes them an appealing option. I’ve seen user feedback about ‘clunky online banking’, but this might have improved.

They both appear on Quickbooks’ list of banks to connect with, so I’d like to hope that there won’t be any major issues. Neither seems to require going to a branch to set up an account. I’ve found the research articles on Charity Excellence very helpful, but things have changed in the past few weeks!

I’m aware that ultimately it boils down to user and charity needs, however any feedback possible would be hugely appreciated.

Many thanks in advance.