Current account switching rules

Moving bank can feel like a daunting prospect, with the perceived hassle of transferring payments and incurring charges, but is that really what happens?

Our research found that seven in ten customers have held their accounts for more than ten years, while 53% have never switched - whether they were satisfied with their bank.

However, switching current account has never been simpler, with the whole process taking seven days opposed to the 18 to 30 days it used to take.

There are also a guarantee to ensure that customers receive a clear and consistent standard of service throughout the switching process.

Current account switching - key benefits

The service launched by UK payments organisation the Payments Council and introduced a number of key changes to the market, including:

• Moving ban- the customer arranges the switch with the new bank, not with the old one.

• Switching date - the customer chooses which date the switch happens on.

• Faster process - while it should take around 10 days or less to switch, many switches take between 18 and 30 days to complete. The new service will ensure the process takes seven days from start to finish.

• Changing payments - arrangements to and from the old account will be automatically transferred to the new account.

• Redirection service - this will run for 36 months from the switch date to catch and redirect any stray payments to the old account.

How did the service come about?

From IT failures to the LIBOR scandal, the poor practices of the big banks have hardly been out of the spotlight in recent years.

So to help encourage dissatisfied customers to switch current accounts, a key recommendation made by the Independent Commission on Banking in 2011 was the establishment of a new current account switching service.

The service was launched in September 2013, the payments council estimated that millions of us have switched accounts since it was implemented.