Bank Account Switching Starts Today

Bank Account Switching Starts Today.

The new fast track system of bank current account switching starts today.

The system, set up by the integrated Bank Payments System, includes all major banks and rather than it being a cumbersome and labour intensive one to two months to switch current accounts and all your direct debits and standing orders, it can be done in a quick as 7 days.

Pundits are suggesting that account holders could save as much as £500 per year by switching for lower charges for “premium” bank accounts as well as lower charges for overdrafts, bounced cheques and returned standing orders or direct debits.

Comment

The new bank switching program is designed to promote competition.  It is estimated that most people only move bank accounts every 15-20 years.  Compared to house moves on average every 7 years and even your marriage to your bank lasting longer on average than marriage to your spouse.

We suggest competition is needed but the days of free banking should stop.  It is commercial suicide that a bank runs all your accounts, handling millions of transactions and does it all for free.  This leads to mis-management of the banking sector as well as mis-selling when a bank attempts to cross sell other services to make money.

That said, with easier bank account switching we hope to see basic improvements in service and development of better products and accessibility.