Our approach to security

Account Dormancy

To protect our customers and reduce the risk of fraudulent activity on their accounts, we make an account dormant if it has not been used for the set time period.

This table outlines the time periods for each product type:

Account type	Period after which your Account may be determined as dormant
Current accounts	12 months
Notice accounts, Trust current accounts and Pension current and currency accounts	60 months
Term Maturity Account	12 months

We send letters to tell our customers when the account is nearing the time period for dormancy for their account type.

To keep the account active, you need to complete a transaction on the account (i.e. deposit, withdrawal). If a customer has an account that is dormant, the account can be reactivated on request. To do this, call us on 0800 092 3300, and we will tell you the next steps as we may require some ID from you.

What makes Cater Allen’s Internet Banking secure?

We've built a user-friendly service, that works actively to protect your identity and your finances.

When you bank online, it's important that we recognise you.

How we recognise you:

Log on details - your log on details such as Personal Access Code (PAC) and password are unique to you.
One Time Passcode (OTP) - we send these unique codes to your mobile to security check:
- payments
- changes you make to payment details
- online Debit Card purchases.

Verifying your transactions with One Time Passcode (OTP)

We send One Time Passcodes to your registered mobile phone to give an extra layer of security.

OTP means you don't need to remember additional passwords or carry separate kit such as Debit Card readers. Always make sure the details quoted within the OTP message correspond with your original request. If you ever receive an OTP message which you are not expecting, let us know as soon as you can as it may be a sign of attempted fraud on your account. The OTP code we send you should not be given to anybody else, either verbally or in writing. It should only be entered when making Debit Card purchases online or when using Internet Banking.

Remember - never share a One Time Passcode (OTP) with anyone, not even a member of Cater Allen staff.

You can call us on 0800 092 3300 to keep us updated with your new mobile phone number, so we can send you OTPs.

Automated fraud monitoring

We monitor your account(s) for any suspicious behaviour. If we spot anything suspicious, we may contact you to check whether requests are genuine.

We might get in touch about transactions such as:

setting up a payment or making a new payment,
changing existing payment details, or
Debit Card purchases.

If there's a transaction that you don't recognise when we contact you, we'll take the necessary steps to keep your account secure. We'll never ask you to transfer your money to a safe account. If you're ever asked to do this, hang up and call us as soon as you can on 0800 092 3300 to report it.

If you have any concerns over the legitimacy of a Cater Allen text message or phone call, please don't respond to it and call us on 0800 092 3300.

Remember, we'll never ask you to confirm your security details in full. We won't ask for details such as your card PIN, Internet Banking passwords and One Time Passcodes. If you're being asked to provide these details, hang up and call us on 0800 092 3300.

If our fraud detection systems notice something unusual on your debit card, we may text or call you using our automated system. This is the quickest way for us to get in touch with you.

Interactive text message: The first message we send will let you know we need to check some transactions with you. The next message we send will include the transactions and some information that well need you to respond to.

We'll only ask you to reply with either a 'Y' for yes, or 'N' for no. We won't ask you to reply with anything else.
If you're happy with all the details, reply 'Y' to the messages. We'll update your account and you can continue banking as normal. You may need to make any declined transactions again.
If you reply 'N' to any of our messages, we'll arrange to call you as soon as possible between 8am-10pm, 7 days a week.

Automated phone call: The call will ask for some security details so that we know we've reached the right person.

You'll be asked to confirm your name and then your date of birth.
We'll then read out the transactions we want you to confirm.
If you confirm you recognise the transactions, you can continue banking as normal. If any payments were declined, you may need to make them again.
If you don't recognise one or more of the transactions, you'll be put through to speak to Fiserv, card provider for Cater Allen, who'll be able to help you with what happens next.

Remember, we'll never ask for details such as your card PIN, Internet Banking passwords and One Time Passcodes. If you're asked to share these, hang up and call us as soon as you can on 0800 092 3300 to report it.

If we can't reach you

If you aren't available, we may leave a message on your answer machine or voicemail. If we can't reach you any other way, we'll send a letter, letting you know we're trying to get in touch and ask you to call us back as soon as you can.

We may need to stop or hold your account or payment until we can speak to you. This is to protect your money and keep your accounts safe.

Warning: some scams involve fraudsters convincing you to make transactions yourself. These transactions are harder for us to spot as suspicious as they often involve you using your PIN, verifying your security details, or using your usual device. If you have any suspicions about the legitimacy of a request:

don't make any payments
call us as soon as you can from a different phone to the one on which you received the potentially fraudulent calls, on 0800 092 3300.

Learn more about common scams used by fraudsters in our Keeping yourself secure page.

Please be aware

We'll never call you and ask you to move your money to keep it safe.

Criminals will use numbers on our website to try and convince you they're genuine. If the caller has told you to check our website to prove they're legitimate, end the call, it's a scam.

If this happens to you, hang up, wait 5 minutes to be sure the line is clear. You should then call us on 159 to securely connect to your bank, or on 0800 092 3300.

Learn more at our Fraud and Security Centre