Has anyone ever switched banks?

[Laurafoster]

Im thinking of moving my current account to Nationwide as ive had such issues with my bank recently.

But it seems like a lot of hassle?! Has anyone ever done it?

 

[Madjock]

I would go and have a word with the Nationwide as I think most banks do all the work for you if you want to switch accounts and it's not as time consuming as you imagine.

 

[natalielongstaff]

i agree with annmarie i think they do most of the hard work

 

[higgy66]

I've done it a couple of times as I now have an all in one account where mortgage/savings/current account all all connected.

Just let your new bank know your old details and they get everything sorted for you.

It takes about 6 weeks all together and they advise you to leave some in your old account to cover DDRs that still go through in between switching.

They let you know when everything is transferred and then you can close the old one.

 

[foxylady]

The only hassle I had was that my beloved employer !!!! decided to pay my salary into my new bank account the month before I asked them to. For once they were too efficient. This meant that our old bank account went overdrawn by well over £1k, and the old bank still paid all the DD's, SO's and cheques. Then they wrote to tell us that we were being charged for them paying all of these items, even though there was no money in the account.

Did get charges refunded, but it was quite a hassle, ie, transferring money from one account to another, etc, and we did have to re-set up some dd's and so's again for the new account.

Luckily fairly happy with our bank now, so have no plans to move again - at the moment.

 

[mikki.young]

Another thing to potentially think about - do you have any dividends that get paid direct to your bank? If you do you will have to contact the various registrars to change to the new details. This does not tend to be something the banks do for you. They are pretty good with direct debits and STOs but you need to think of any unusual transactions you may have that might slip the net.

 

[Lizzybear]

I think it's wise to keep an eye on any direct debits and the like (they SAY they'll sort these out but some can still slip by so best to keep a check on them yourself aswell) but changing banks can be really worthwhile so i'd say go for it. My mum is with Nationwide and really rates them, may change to them myself when my overdraft is paid off

 

[tony64]

We did change to Nationwide and it was almost hassle free, there were a couple of DD's that slipped by and we had to contact the companies to set up the new one's but it was easier than I thought it was going to be.Great exchange rates now when we go on holiday.