Consumer champion Miles Brignall has switched twice without a problem. If you are fed up with your bank, don't stick around
Tell people you're thinking of changing banks, and at least a one will suck their teeth and say you're asking for trouble.
For years the banks have let this myth persist, knowing that people are more likely to switch partner than bank. A challenge to the status quo is long overdue.
I have switched bank account twice without a problem, and wouldn't hesitate to do so again if I became disillusioned with my provider.
Despite what you may have heard, the truth is the majority of switches go without a hitch, and if it doesn't there is usually some redress.
Having grown disillusioned with my treatment (and the overdraft charges) of the traditional big-five bank I'd joined as a 16-year-old, at 25 I switched to the then up and coming First Direct, which was pioneering telephoning banking and put its customer's needs at the heart of the operation. Ten years later, having got married, and with all the financial paraphernalia of a mortgage etc, we moved our joint account to the Nationwide.
It wasn't because I was unhappy with First Direct, but because we were moving to France. At the time Nationwide offered fee-free cash withdrawals abroad ? making it the only bank to choose if you lived overseas. Nationwide has since taken away this benefit.
Both switches happened without a hitch. The banks do all the work and our mortgage payments and other direct debits were passed on from First Direct to Nationwide.
I'm always surprised that so few Britons are prepared to switch ? even after terrible service. Guardian Money gets very few complaints from readers on this subject. I remember only two in the last few years. Compared with the energy or broadband companies, complaints about bank switching are rare.
You do need to keep an the eye on the process, checking key payments such as your mortgage.
If you want to switch account but have been put off, I'd say do it. Until more bank customers vote with their feet, the banks will continue to get away with poor service and low interest rates.
In Spain it is not uncommon for customers to switch bank six times. If the Spanish can build a competitive switching market, why can't we?
Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/2012/feb/10/why-switching-banks-is-easy
Executive pay and bonuses Gordon Brown Amir Khan CVs WikiLeaks Gabriel Agbonlahor
