Easiest way to change lots of direct debits to another bank

shomk

I want to move my direct debits to another account but there is quite a few of them.

Is there an easy way to do this or do I have to ring each one??

Lokolo

Pretty sure the bank can do it for you.

JimmyTheWig

Most banks have a "switching service" where they'll do it for you. They want your custom, so they'll do the work. It's supposed to be straight forward.

Tried it once from Abbey to Halifax and it was really hard work. Think it would have been easier to do it myself. I believe it was because Abbey kept mucking things up.
In the process of now going from Halifax to First Direct. Seems to be going ok this time.

Some banks tend to do special offers for customers doing this, which might be worth investigating...

KarenBB

The bank you want to pay the DDs from will probably chnage them all for you but I'd do it myself. If the bank does it they write to all of the companies telling them to change the details and you just have to trust that they've done it. If you call all of the companies (ok it takes a bit of time but not that long) you know that it's done, if you're too late to do it for the next DD they can tell you, you cake make a note of the name of the person you spoke to. That's my preferred route but I'm probably a bit of a control freek and need to dot the i's and cross thet's, if I do it myself I know it's done properly.

kindofagilr

Yeah my mam changed from someone (cant remember the name) to Abbey and it was a nightmare!

Abbey totally messed it up.

noh

KarenBB wrote: »

The bank you want to pay the DDs from will probably chnage them all for you but I'd do it myself. If the bank does it they write to all of the companies telling them to change the details and you just have to trust that they've done it. If you call all of the companies (ok it takes a bit of time but not that long) you know that it's done, if you're too late to do it for the next DD they can tell you, you cake make a note of the name of the person you spoke to. That's my preferred route but I'm probably a bit of a control freek and need to dot the i's and cross thet's, if I do it myself I know it's done properly.

They don't write.
The instruction is sent electronically. It should be the most efficient way of doing it.

See:-
http://www.bacs.co.uk/Bacs/Banks/BacsServices/Accountswitching/Pages/TransferofDirectDebitsandStandingOrdersservice.aspx
http://www.bacs.co.uk/bacs/businesses/bacsacademy/accountswitching/yourcustomers/pages/yourcustomers.aspx

jonesMUFCforever

Bank A will do the work for you if you transfer your banking from bank B - they won't do it if you want to keep both accounts open.

noh

jonesMUFCforever wrote: »

Bank A will do the work for you if you transfer your banking from bank B - they won't do it if you want to keep both accounts open.

With all the transfers I have done there has never been a requirement to close the existing account even when an incentive has been offered to switch.

KarenBB

noh wrote: »

They don't write.
The instruction is sent electronically. It should be the most efficient way of doing it.

See:-
http://www.bacs.co.uk/Bacs/Banks/BacsServices/Accountswitching/Pages/TransferofDirectDebitsandStandingOrdersservice.aspx
http://www.bacs.co.uk/bacs/businesses/bacsacademy/accountswitching/yourcustomers/pages/yourcustomers.aspx

Whether they write or send it electronically you can't be sure that the DD has been changed at the other end.
If a dd is due to go out on the 14th and the company are notified on the 12th to change it from bank A to bank B the request would probably already be in the system so you could be expecting it to come from bank B but it would come out of bank A. You would have to leave money in both accounts not knowing what is coming from where. It has made a real mess for a friend of mine.

If you do it yourself you know exactly what will come from where.

I know people switch accounts to get an incentive but I often see it posted that they have accounts with just one or 2 direct debit which would be ok, if it's all of your dd's that's where there's more chance of a problem.

td_007

shomk wrote: »

I want to move my direct debits to another account but there is quite a few of them.

Is there an easy way to do this or do I have to ring each one??

The easiest way is to do it yourself. In almost all cases you will be able to do it over phone or online - this way you can be sure everything setup correctly and get individual acknowledgments of the change. It really does not take time once you get started.

noh

KarenBB wrote: »

Whether they write or send it electronically you can't be sure that the DD has been changed at the other end.
If a dd is due to go out on the 14th and the company are notified on the 12th to change it from bank A to bank B the request would probably already be in the system so you could be expecting it to come from bank B but it would come out of bank A. You would have to leave money in both accounts not knowing what is coming from where. It has made a real mess for a friend of mine.

If you do it yourself you know exactly what will come from where.

I know people switch accounts to get an incentive but I often see it posted that they have accounts with just one or 2 direct debit which would be ok, if it's all of your dd's that's where there's more chance of a problem.

Of course you would have to leave money in both accounts whether you use the automated service or switching yourself. Not doing so would be foolish.