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Current Account 7 Day Switch Guarantee

realwalesrealwales Posts: 3,110
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in Advice #1
I'm thinking of changing banks - the one I've been with since my student days has recently closed their local branch and I feel very uneasy about its role in the ongoing banking crisis. However, I can't really afford much disruption with payments coming in and out of my account.

Has anyone else taken advantage of the 7 day Switch Guarantee and how did you find it?

Thanks

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    blueisthecolourblueisthecolour Posts: 20,128
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    #2
    realwales wrote: »
    I'm thinking of changing banks - the one I've been with since my student days has recently closed their local branch and I feel very uneasy about its role in the ongoing banking crisis. However, I can't really afford much disruption with payments coming in and out of my account.

    Has anyone else taken advantage of the 7 day Switch Guarantee and how did you find it?

    Thanks

    Yes, I did it myself back in September just after the scheme started. I'd been with Natwest for 12 years but wasn't happy with them announcing a fee for going more than £10 overdrawn (even though i had a £2,000 facility agreed) so decided to switch to First Direct.

    I had two natwest bank accounts, a natwest credit card and obviously a ton of direct debits and standing orders however it went fairly smoothly. I'd make the following points.

    1. The hardest part is applying for a new bank account. I filled in an extremely long online form however then had to manually sign and return a number of different contracts. In total this took a couple of weeks, though obviously you keep your old bank account going at the same time so it won't cause you any disruption.

    2. Once this is done you ring the new bank and give them a date from which to switch your balance and all activity to your new account. This all requires 7 days but everything continues as normal from your perspective.

    3. In theory, you don't need to do anything else. All your direct debits and standing orders will transfer and your old bank will forward on any transactions on to your new one. My experience was that this was almost perfect - I did have one (government) direct debit where they had failed to change their details in time and I had to ring them and make it manually. After that though I had no issues - everything from TV licence to mortgage to magazine subscriptions transferred without a hitch (though it was annoying getting multiple confirmation letters of the change in my bank account.

    4. I would tell your work directly about the change as obviously your salary is your most important transaction.

    5. The one thing you do have to change is where you've registered your debit cards online for automatic payments (Amazon, paypal, Bet365 etc etc). This won't change automatically.

    Personally i'd say go for it - the automatic transfer and 13 month auto forwarding means that very little can go wrong. Just don't expect it to be as easy as they make out.
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    realwalesrealwales Posts: 3,110
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    #3
    blueisthecolour wrote: »
    Yes, I did it myself back in September just after the scheme started. I'd been with Natwest for 12 years but wasn't happy with them announcing a fee for going more than £10 overdrawn (even though i had a £2,000 facility agreed) so decided to switch to First Direct.

    I had two natwest bank accounts, a natwest credit card and obviously a ton of direct debits and standing orders however it went fairly smoothly. I'd make the following points.

    1. The hardest part is applying for a new bank account. I filled in an extremely long online form however then had to manually sign and return a number of different contracts. In total this took a couple of weeks, though obviously you keep your old bank account going at the same time so it won't cause you any disruption.

    2. Once this is done you ring the new bank and give them a date from which to switch your balance and all activity to your new account. This all requires 7 days but everything continues as normal from your perspective.

    3. In theory, you don't need to do anything else. All your direct debits and standing orders will transfer and your old bank will forward on any transactions on to your new one. My experience was that this was almost perfect - I did have one (government) direct debit where they had failed to change their details in time and I had to ring them and make it manually. After that though I had no issues - everything from TV licence to mortgage to magazine subscriptions transferred without a hitch (though it was annoying getting multiple confirmation letters of the change in my bank account.

    4. I would tell your work directly about the change as obviously your salary is your most important transaction.

    5. The one thing you do have to change is where you've registered your debit cards online for automatic payments (Amazon, paypal, Bet365 etc etc). This won't change automatically.

    Personally i'd say go for it - the automatic transfer and 13 month auto forwarding means that very little can go wrong. Just don't expect it to be as easy as they make out.

    Thank you for this reply. Yes, it's NatWest I'm thinking leaving as well. I wasn't aware of the new £10 overdrawn charge but that gives me another reason to leave! I let out properties to tenants and also do bits of work for several different employers, but if I've got 13 months to iron it out I can't see it being a problem.
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