Cards recalled by Cahoot.com

By THIS IS MONEY
Updated: 19:00 EST, 30 August 2000

Abbey National's internet arm cahoot has admitted to problems with its debit cards - and is recalling them to give customers easier access to cash.

The bank has discovered that some customers cannot use their cards to get cash backs at supermarkets or purchase goods at debit-only merchants. So now it is cancelling all existing debit cards and issuing new ones.

A cahoot spokesman said: 'The old cards will become invalid on September 30 while the new cards will be sent out over the next couple of weeks and will be usable straight away.

'We knew about the problem at launch and sent out e-mails or letters to all people potentially affected and we haven't had any complaints about it. But we decided that the best thing to do was to issue a complete set of new cards.

'The problem with our debit cards originated at Visa but obviously we have to sort it out.'

Cahoot suffered computer failures on its launch day in June and has had problems with cashback withdrawals involving its debit card in the following weeks. It joins a growing list of Internet banks which have suffered problems.

Intelligent Finance, Halifax's phone and Internet bank, has had to delay its public launch twice while Prudential's online savings and loan operation Egg has suffered an attempted raid by computer hackers.