MSE News: Osborne commits to speedier bank account switching

innovate

I am not objecting, I am just saying it (the switch within 7 days) won't work unless the payees cooperate. No amount of fudging the system will change anything about that fact.

I appreciate that some temporary forwarding of payments might alleviate the need of having funds in the old and new account - - though, tbh, that isn't really necessary anyway if you time your DD move properly and monitor the progress online.

I maintain that it is a huge waste of money to try and "automate" account switching without including the payees in the scheme. The money that was sunk into the banking (/BACS) end could have been better used to educate people on some banking fundamentals.

However, the banks and the government probably quite like it if people think managing their own current account affairs themselves is beyond them.

Consumerist

innovate wrote: »

I am not objecting, I am just saying it (the switch within 7 days) won't work unless the payees cooperate. No amount of fudging the system will change anything about that fact.

The issue for the customer is the danger of DDs being returned unpaid during the switching period. Once that hurdle has been cleared, customers have the chance to chase up slow-moving recipients without their credit records having been trashed as a result of switching banks.

If the current DD system cannot cope with seamless switching then perhaps it is time for the system to be overhauled.

Anthorn

Consumerist wrote: »

chase up slow-moving recipients without their credit records having been trashed as a result of switching banks.

That is precisely the reason why I'm not using a switching service currently. If there are errors there is still the direct debit authorisation and funds available at my old bank. BT for example says that it should be able to email me when the new Direct Debit has been authorised at my new bank "within 10 days" whereas a different lesser company did it in three which should be the time scale for electronic Direct Debits or even less than that!

innovate

Strange that Osborne didn't announce the planned Finance Education for pupils. He could have made a huge song and dance about that.

May be he is of the view financially literate citizens aren't really needed?

http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/news/family/2013/02/financial-education-to-be-added-to-the-national-curriculum