closing a bank account which has direct debits?

wannaberich41

Hi,
I currently have a current account with barcalys and a joint account with my husband at lloyds tsb. Thinking of closing my barclays account and just keeping the lloyds. reason:- Surely we will earn more interest? The only thing is i have quite a few direct debits which go out of of my barclays account. Is there a easy way of transfering these??????? with out aload of agro. Will lloyds deal with it for me?
Your help would be very much appreciated.
I only work part time to the money i get really pays the bills.
thanks

Madiba_2

I think the best thing to do would be contact Lloyds. Most banks offer a trasnfer service, including Lloyds. It takes between 3 and 6 weeks for them sort everything out for you.

However, if you dont keep much money in your Barclays account, it might be worth just keeping it as it allows you to access other "account holder only" products that barclays may offer, e.g. thier 10% regular saver....

JollyNolly

It's also worth holding onto your old accounts as proof of "stability" when you apply for credit cards, etc. They like to see that you've been with your bank a while. If you're looking for good current account interest, try Alliance and Leicester (despite the trouble I'm having logging onto my account there at the moment!). I did my own move last year, gradually moving around 16 direct debits, and that worked fine.

wannaberich41

thank you for your replies, very much appreciated

Mikeyorks

Lloyds, as most other Banks, have an account transfer unit who will deal with all aspects of switching to them.

But you're not 'switching' - as you're an existing customer, so the facilities of the unit may not be made available to you - you'll need to ask?

Personally I'd do it myself as being safer. Just 'phone all your DD creditors and give them the Account Number / Sort Code of the LLoyds account in place of the Barclays data they use now.

Most will write to you to confirm the change and (It takes at least 2 weeks for them to file a mandate with the 'new' Bank - so any DD in that timeframe will still go to Barclays) should give you the date of change. So you'll need to juggle funds a bit in the next 2 months. Then when you can see all the DDs have safely migrated - close the DDs (easy if you've online access - just delete them) on the Barclays - and close out the Balance in the account.

It's not hard - just needs a modicum of organisation and checking. But stay on top of it to avoid going into the red - particularly on the Barclays one?

heppy23

I moved current accounts this summer and the new bank didn't offer a transfer service.

What I did was to put loads of effort finding reference numbers and addresses for the direct debits I had. I wrote to them ALL and only heard back from about half of them.

So what I then did (only works on monthly DD's) was to cancel the DD the day after it went out. The bank then tells the payee then the payee gets in touch. They normally send a new DD form out or the letter they send has enough info on it to help you get one.

I'd be very careful using this method for anything mega important like your mortgage.

Indispensable_Hobbes

JollyNolly wrote:

£2 coin savers club: £1.49.

nothing to do with this thread but... how did you manage that haha