Time to Close a Business Bank Account

LittleVoice

How long should a bank take to complete the closure of a business bank account? That is an account with little usage, not one with a great deal of activity.

Dobbibill

Hi LittleVoice,

I think you may need to check your T&C's for the timescales.

I would think it would depend if it's in credit or debit and how many signatories are on the account. Also how long it takes the instruction in writing to reach them.

Which bank is it with?

DB

LittleVoice

Dobbibill wrote: »

Hi LittleVoice,

I think you may need to check your T&C's for the timescales.

I would think it would depend if it's in credit or debit and how many signatories are on the account. Also how long it takes the instruction in writing to reach them.

Which bank is it with?

DB

Account a few thousand in credit (for quite a few years).


Two signatories, either to sign. Closure form signed by one and payment to the other (personal current account with the same bank).


When the funds were not received on the day of requested closure (or the next working day) I queried this with the branch to which I had delivered the closure form and who had told me they had what was required.


They phoned the closure office and I asked where in the T&C their now proposed time frame was written and was then told that it's not in the T&C and that they specifically would not state in the T&C what timeframe would be involved in closing an account.


Form appears to have taken a week to get from the branch to the processing centre but still before the requested closure date. Still no correspondence received to say there would be a delay.


Very annoyed with them - and wondered whether a day, week, fortnight, month, or quarter seemed reasonable to people.

Dobbibill

I cannot remember how long it took to close my business account (so many years ago) I do remember that I transferred any funds out before providing the closure notice though.

A week for the notice to get from branch to business centre doesn't surprise me unfortunately. You would think with all the technology we have nowadays this wouldn't be the case.

Thinking of it, I'm not surprised the T&C's don't provide a timescale for closure. Some accounts are more complexed and require multiple signatures, which can be time consuming if they are not as eager as others.

I would be expecting the funds from the business to be transferred by about 10 working days and the account to be closed within 5 working days from that, so no longer than 3 weeks in total. I don't think that would be an unreasonable timescale if they have everything they require. That's not based on any information I have though, just my own personal expectations.
IMHO, a month or quarter would be taking the proverbial.

DB

jonesMUFCforever

Why not just transfer 99% of the balance out now and then wait for the pennies to follow?

Slinky

I closed a business account earlier this week over the phone, the money came through to the linked account the same day, but it was under £10.

chrisc2615

I closed two business accounts after being with the same bank for 36 years. They weren't even interested to find out why I closed it. The time taken at the bank counter was about 10 mins. Today you are just a number. In the 1980's when I opened the account, I even got to meet the manager. He called me about a year later offering an overdraft