Changing Banks

It is important that you are looking after your money, don’t let it sit in a bank account that does nothing for you and that can mean changing banks. Whilst this is important if you are looking to make your money work for you, it is important that you don’t do this just before you are looking to make a credit application.

Any application that you put through relating to your credit, including changing your bank to a better one, the information will be on your credit file; this will reduce the value and could result in a decline or a higher rate of interest offered.

Changing banks is easier

I have, in the past, worked in the banking sector and know the hassles first-hand with customers wanting to change their banks. With the new system in place that can allow you to transfer in 7 working days is great. I have witnessed the system first hand and the bank I transferred to was great.

The reason this process has come into force was the problem that many people were staying with their banks, even though they got poor service, because of the problems caused in the transfer of providers. This new system has created a provision that if you are unhappy with your current provider you can move and it is relatively hassle free.

What is great is the guarantee that any payments that go to your old bank automatically get forwarded to your new bank. This is vital in ensuring that you have covered all the angles.

My one concern that I found out was any regular payment set up on my old debit card doesn’t get automatically transferred to the new bank. This is sometimes difficult to sort, but luckily for me it was just one company and one payment that I had to deal with.

Having a budget and a plan helped me in this process because I was able to work through the companies which I was expecting to move to the new account and it worked very smoothly.

Knowing when to leave

With the ability to move bank accounts relatively easy it has given many people a voice that they haven’t had before. If the service is continually poor in your current banking provider then moving banks might lead to better customer service all round. The amount of current accounts that do move get tracked and this data makes for very interesting reading, a recent article in The Telegraph gives the figures of the accounts that have moved.

What does this mean for those banks that offer poor customer service repeatedly? These are the ones that will be the hardest hit, with their customers walking out on them and changing to providers that do offer value for money and great customer service.

It is important, if you find that the bank you have opted for lets you down, as long as you are not considering applying for any form of credit, then you are in a position to consider moving again.