Charities Aid Foundation Recensioni 

Shambolic. That’s the only word to describe CAF Bank. Whoever is responsible for this shambles should be made to come spend an hour or two at a charity like ours just to get an understanding of how much upset and extra work they’ve caused. We’ve 26 staff who I ‘paid’ on Tuesday except only 9 staff were actually paid. The other 17? No idea what’s happened to their payments, lost in the banking ether. I’ve given up trying to call CAF because you’re either number 31 in the queue or they simply tell
you to call back later and cut you off. How is this acceptable? It just beggars belief tbh. I had no choice but to pay the 17 staff again today even though I’ve no idea what’s happened to the other payment I made. I’ve emailed them AGAIN but just get a ‘we’ll get back to you in 5 working days’. I’m off away for a few days, I bloody well need it after the stress of the last few days.

I thought I would give it three weeks before writing a review, just in case they could fix things. Unfortunately earlier today I could sign in but not set up any payments. Now I can't even sign in. This really is so poor. It's 5:05 and the phone lines are off.....

Three days on from my review and our authorise signatures are finding all OTPs fail to work...

As a volunteer Church treasurer I have to fit my role around a full time job and family life, and have been happy to do so.

CAF bank used to support this and the odd call late in the afternoon was doable with a helpful customer team. After the recent changes it is actively making this impossible to manage, meaning I am forced to do a bad job on all 3 facets: real job / family / volunteering. The knock on consequences are not just for the charities and if this was properly understood it would not have happened.

1. The new text message alerts for approval when it used to be email based mean I am disturbing other volunteers when I set up payments early in the morning or late at night. Meaning I need to factor this in to when I can do certain tasks. When can this be turned off?

2. Sweep has been turned off with zero notice - with this in place I've historically been able to focus on productive work knowing that the Current account balance was taken care off and only worry about major payments. Now I need to actively monitor the account wasting time that could be more effectively spent and move money before it needs to be moved costing interest on our savings. When is this coming back?

3. Call Wait Times - Just called up support line this morning and I was #29 in the queue - I have to fit calling the helpdesk around a day job, luckily I work from home and have a bit of flexibility but there must be others facing the same with even tighter timelines. Why can't we request a call back? The people who can't wait 2hrs are probably the people who need the most help.

4. Other ongoing account changes have just been suspended - I've been trying to update some account details and just been told it is being paused. I can understand this for a few days around the transition but its been 3 weeks. We need these changes

5. More regular comms - We got an update on the 20th - what has happened since then.

Please don't post me a generic reply - I know there is a poor person on customer support who is struggling under the weight of feedback - this is not their fault

For now I would like
- someone in the tech team to update us on what is happening today, the order of priorities and when they will be fixed
- to know that customers are not being charged the monthly fee while these issues are ongoing
- I'd like to know how many real users were consulted before the changes were made? - who thought this was better?

*Thankyou to Ben for the call. That was appreciated. Still frustrated with the issues but fair play for listening*

Avoid this 'bank' at all cost if you can. After one successful login, it now does not work anymore, we can't authorise payments as the system does not recognise our details anymore. And the helpline? 'Call back later, we are not taking any calls now due to high volume of calls.'
Despite them saying 'wait times are coming down', the opposite is the case. After 6 days still not able to access our account and after being in queue position number 68 (I am not making this up), waiting until it's my turn, they hang up and then not accepting calls. That's 26.6.25 9 a.m. A financial institution for charities really should know that there are vulnerable people being negatively impacted by not receiving their funds.
This morning 30.6.25 our login resets went through, we're now able to log on.

Having had initial issues to set up on the new banking system, I eventually could access our accounts. Today however I am unable to log on - apparently the system can't send the one time code to my mobile - funny that as it has managed to do it since the changeover. I am advised to call the bank which I do to be told we are not taking any calls at the moment - please try later. Absolutely shocking Customer Service! The Chairman and CEO both need to resign as I presume they would have signed off a system that is quite obviously not fit for purpose!

I cannot believe how terrible the new so-called "better banking" is. What used to be a simple process to pay a group of people - selecting a pre-made list, ticking the ones you wanted, entering the amounts, clicking on "submit", now takes ages and requires lots of completely unnecessary steps. The bulk payment templates are a complete disaster. Fine if you make the same payments to the same group of people everytime, but impossible to adapt easily or quickly. I can't add new beneficiaries to a bulk payment - yes I'm told there will be a delay but I've been waiting a week. The search doesn't work. Multiple steps and wasted time to do something simple. Who on earth designed this process? Did they test it with actual users? I can't believe anyone said "hey, that's definitely better banking"! And that's before you try to download transactions from the site - what used to be a one click now requires editing of CSV files just to get it into a usable format. And what's with sending loads of text messages to every user late at night? Come on CAF, surely you can do better than this. Please (1) acknowledge the design mistakes made and (2) set our a roadmap / timescale for re-instating something that is usable and works. We are a small charity and our volunteers are not going to last for long when what took them minutes is now taking hours. This change is having real negative impact and needs to be addressed fast.

This banking upgrade from CAF has been a complete disaster. Not being able to make payments and with deadlines to meet for payments is annoying and embarrassing, having to pay out of my own pocket to avoid losing services we are committed to. Not able to get a response when calling for help and resorting to emails only to receive standard apologies just isn't good enough. 15 days and no ability to pay anyone.

The new portal and online banking process is very poor, indeed it is downright amateurish. I need to pay staff & suppliers, but having set up/requested the payments, the person approving has been unable to do so,or even to see clearly what he is trying to approve. One payment he believed he'd approved, is still showing as pending approval on my screen. Result, delayed payments, unhappy suppliers and a two hour wait to speak to someone for help. I am typing this whilst in queue postion 12. I have experienced other bank system transitions in previous existenses, but nothing that is as creaky, unclear, unintuitive or amateurish as this one. The email I received explaining there were teething problems, and asking me to hang on in there, does not really help. I would like to see when it is expected these problems will be fixed, not simply as soon as possible. Perhaps someone should explain, what was wrong with the old system and why it need changing. CAF is a great bank. Its staff are wonderful. This is a great shame.

Utterly appalling piece of system design. Inadequately tested and conceptually poor. As a counter-signatory it takes me 8 steps to check and approve each individual payment and I have to enter my 5-digit pin number every time. I have better things to do.

Everything that every other customer has complained about, i have pretty much had the same issues with. I waited patiently for 1 hour and 58 minutes last Thursday for my call to be connected. Eventually it was, and the lady who helped and assisted me was great. Her name was Shona and she was an absolute star, talked through all my queries and did her best to help resolve them. I do feel sorry for the front line staff who are taking all the flack from callers but they are learning the new software just like customers are. A big thank to Shona at CAF who helped me.

Now into 3rd week of being unable to login to web account. "Solutions" from Customer Services don't work; bank has now given up even answering phone calls

The launch of the CafBank "upgrade" on 9th June 2025 has been nothing short of a disaster. Opening balances did not agree. csv statement downloads contained no data, Beneficiaries have disappeared. Bulk payment templates have disappeared along with the associated bank details. The arrival/input of OTP codes via text is flaky and often doesn't work. I'm getting very worried as I am trying to set up salary payments for tomorrow and this is proving to be extremely difficult. I have never been put in this position before - it's a disgrace!

Further to my earlier comment, would it not be a good idea if the CAF Bank Chairman, Ms A Taylor, drafted a letter of apology and explanation which we customers could send on to our suppliers and payees who are having to wait for payment? My old boss would have said "someone should be fired!". Hmm, not a bad idea; might focus a few minds on essentials.

Dreadful Dreadful Dreadful

Though we continue to have problems thankfully my organisation is not affected as much as some here. There are too many issues that require to be fixed by a management team that is incapable of keeping the phone lines running let alone fixing the big problems and it is abundantly clear that the new system will not be fully functioning within the time all CAF Bank customers need it to be. The old system should be reinstalled immediately and whoever authorised this catastrophe should resign.

Absolutely appalling. This continues to be a significant waste of my time for the charity. There is a direct financial impact on a small charity that cannot afford it.

A shockingly poor 'new website'. We are told it has "thorough testing" before launch. No, it didn't. How many people took part in the testing? How many people tried to get a list of transactions out of their account. How many people tried the new payments section? How many said what a fantastic new website. I feel sorry for the customer service people, as this is a management issue. But I would expect to receive an email back with the week, but i am still waiting.

UPDATE - As for the reply below I have tried phoning several times, and am always told by the automation to phone back another time as you are 'so busy'. Still had no response from emails either. I'll try the new one and see if I get any success.

I would give them zero if I could. This relates to the 'upgade' of their system. I have still not received log in details for our bank account 2 weeks after the transfer, I have asked 3 times. The phone line is closed. No consideration given that charities have to make payments to suppliers and staff. As primary user I am unable to access our account.

I have the same problems as other reviewers report with the new online banking system. It takes much longer to do anything now. I found a payment wasn't made even though the log says it was input and approved in the dual payment process.

Furious. Lost annual leave and days off trying to sort this, in order to ensure that my team will get paid. Still no guarantee of this. We still can’t link to quickbooks (hasn’t worked since this was rolled out on the 9th). Can’t complete vital reporting for funding. Missed a funding deadline as we can’t provide all of the information and no one will answer the phones to help. Absolutely sick of this bank now. You are destroying charities in what is already a difficult climate at the moment.

Disgraceful customer service and certainly not treating customers fairly. Transactions not able to be approved, customer services message 'call back later' and then 3 days later a 2 hour wait to get answered. I've never know a new system launch take so long to fix the glitches. I'm wondering if the system was authorised to go live against the wishes of the IT experts who perhaps warned it was not ready yet.