CAF Bank Charity Banking

About CAF Bank

CAF Bank is a subsidiary of the Charities Aid Foundation (CAF), a leading charity group that is seeking to help accelerate society to be more fair, sustainable and future-thinking. With their understaning of the challenges that come with charity work, the bank has built up a community of over 14,000 charities that all bank with a purpose.

See our full CAF Bank charity account review of features, fees and how they compare against other online and high street bank accounts.

CAF Bank pros & cons

Pros of CAF Bank

• Charity-first banking
• Interest is paid on positive balances
• Accept payments & donations with Worldpay
• Free cash & cheque services
• Bank anywhere with online banking
• Unregistered charities can apply
• Overdrafts & loans available
• Offer a savings account
• Covered by the FSCS

Cons of CAF Bank

• Don't support Faster Payments
• Steep monthly account fee
• No mobile banking app

CAF Bank current account

CAF Bank offer their CAF Cash Account to both registered and unregistered charities for £8 per month, with no minimum balance required to open.

The account pays interest on positive balances at a rate of 0.05% AER variable.

There are no CAF Bank branches but you can use HSBC and Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) branches for full cash services or Post Office branches to pay in cheques.

Management of the account is done through their online portal, offering dual authorisation when moving any funds.

Here's a summary of CAF banking fees:

Security & protection

CAF Bank offers protection up to £85,000 through the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS) and are regulated by both the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA).

Through their online banking system you'll have the choice to set different access levels for your team, such as read-only, who can create payments and who can authorise them.

They use two-factor authentication with UniqueCode - a free authentication app - that gives you a unique code whenever you want to log in to online banking, view or change details, manage users or authorise a payment.

Eligibility

To be eligible for a CAF Bank account you must be a charity, either registered or unregistered, not-for-profit organisation or community-interest group.

Opening an account

To open a CAF Bank account you'll need to head over to their website and download their application pack. Once filled in and sent off they say it takes around five working days, from receiving your application to have the account opened.

Overdrafts

CAF Bank customers can apply for an arranged overdraft for a fee of 2% the total balance of the agreed overdraft. The minimum fee for this is fixed at £500 and the interest rate is up to 7% over the Bank of England rate.

There are no unarranged overdrafts offered by CAF Bank.

Additional services

CAF Bank offer secured loans to account holders, subject to eligibility and review. The loan amounts start at £150,000 up to £5 million for most organisations, repayable over two to 25 years.

Social housing schemes could get up to £8 million for the same terms.

CAF Bank savings account

CAF Bank provide charitable organisations the option to open an instant access CAF Gold Account. It offers 0.25% AER interest that is calculated daily and paid quarterly to a nominated current account.

You'll need to deposit £1,000 to open, though you can dip below this after opening, and are required to hold a CAF Cash current account.

Withdrawals are accepted with no penalties and the account can be managed by phone, online or by post. You can also pay in at any HSBC, RBS or Post Office branches.

CAF Bank reviews

CAF Bank themselves don't have any reviews but the charity, Charities Aid Foundation (CAF), does.

Frequently asked questions

It's not uncommon to have questions when looking in to business banking, especially for the first time. These are some of the most relevant questions for CAF Bank: