Switch your current account in seven days – guaranteed!

I don’t want to be negative, although I’m going to be. But why focus on giving a 7 day guarantee on switching current accounts. Very people actually do this. And like any scheme they should start off small and work up to bank accounts, ironing out issues on the way. Given that the number of people who transfer ISAs EVERY year compared to the number of people of transfer bank accounts in their lifetime, I would have liked to see them tackle that black hole first then move onto current accounts.

I just moved ISA and the money was neither in the old account nor the new account for 12 days, that needs to be addressed. I last moved bank around 20 years ago, and have no intention of moving again, now I’m with a good bank that’s rated as such year in year out. And if they can’t deal with one account with no DDs/standing orders/cheque books attached to it in under 12 days, they’ll never manage bank accounts in 7.

I’ve switched bank accounts a few times and never had a problem with the banks themselves, its the companies I pay by direct debits that cause the problems. On the past 2 occasions I’ve swapped accounts the UK’s most useless ISP TalkTalk has managed to mess up and not update their systems in time and continue trying to collect money from the old account.

I’ve had a Lloyds current account for about 30 years, which I opened when I went to university, and am happy with it and don’t intend to close it. However, I have had other current accounts in the meantime, but always kept the Lloyds account dormant and repeatedly went back to it (it’s currently my only current account.) When I got divorced I closed a joint account I had with Santander and asked my employer to pay my salary into my Lloyds account. However, I didn’t know that expenses are paid using a different system, so didn’t tell our expenses people to change my bank details. I don’t claim expenses very often; maybe once every two or three years. I’ve just had an expenses payment bounce because they tried to pay it into the Santander account which I had closed two years ago. So how is this new guarantee meant to help? The 13 months stated in your article is not long enough. It should be indefinite.

Perhaps this wouldn’t be an issue if we had portable bank account numbers. I’m not sure. If this system works like portable telephone numbers, then the old bank account will close as soon as the new one is opened. I don’t want that. If I find something I don’t like about the new bank account (e.g. if it uses a calculator-type card reader for security in Internet banking, or if you can only reach it using 08 numbers instead of geographical ones) then I would like to be able to go back to my old account.