Repercussions of switching accounts

mrandrewsmith

I’ll openly confess from the outset that I regularly switch bank accounts. Mainly for rewards or for the fact I dislike a bank for whatever reason.

I wanted to ask others if they have ever had any repercussions of switching accounts using the CASS?

What it is is, today I have received a couple of letters one was from my car finance company (Santander) and the other from my car insurance (Co-Operative) saying they have detected “suspicious or suspected fraudulent activity on my account”. I read the letter through and it enclosed a form for me to fill in to explain to them why I have changed bank details so often. It went on to ask if the new bank accounts belonged to me and I had to explain to them in detail why I had switched banks so many times (3) in the past six months.

My question is has anyone else had this? I am a little peed off with it as both these companies have been getting paid and I am not in any arrears with either and I’ve never missed any payments to them. Surely it’s my prerogative if I wish to move bank accounts, as long as they still get their money??

The letter went on to say if I continued to change my bank account so frequently they would cancel my policy (Co-Operative) and cancel my agreement (Santander).

I just find this outrageous, surely if I want to change bank that is my choice? I suppose you could say the co-operative and Santander can choose their customers too but I’d like to know the legality of this especially with Santander ... would they really repossess my car due to the fact I’ve changed banks when they have had payment made on time every month for the past 18 months?!

Interested to know if anyone else has had similar experiences?

JuicyJesus

Switching three times in the past six months is a bit odd and it's understandable that they'd question it. It hints at someone whose finances are a bit unstable, or alternatively keeps getting kicked out of banks, or whose reason for churning banks is to avoid penalties for fraudulent activity. (Besides that it also costs them money in terms of admin work.)

Insurers and credit companies do have as much of a legal/regulatory duty to investigate suspected fraud and money laundering as much as banks do.

BoGoF

I imagine you're increasing their admin costs but no idea where you stand 'legally'

mailmannz

There was some who har about banks leaving hard searches on your credit record when doing things like opening new accounts.

I got caught out by this earlier in the year when I was shopping around for accounts to put money in to from a house sale!

Probably just best to tell them why you were opening the accounts and be done with it.

Regards

Mailman

binaryuniverse

This is why you open a donor account and switch from that. Keep your main account nice and stable.

surreysaver

People are going to be doing a lot more messing around with direct debits in the near future owing to Tesco's changes.

robatwork

Are you switching your "main" account?

I would think most people in here are keeping one account for many years which is their main one, and opening others purely to benefit from switching. Hence all the discussion around £1 debits.

Then they (we) are cycling money into and out of the main account into the one or more reward paying accounts.

My main Santander account I've had since A&L days what was decades ago. I still like the largely intangible benefit of feeling like this account is longstanding, customer of many years blah blah.

System

You may be able to switch to a standing order payment.
That way, there isn't any admin for them.

Don80

I agree, if you are switching your main account, this is going to raise flags. It is important to show stability on your credit file, so keeping your main account, staying at the same address etc, all helps.

I'd agree with the suggestion that you use a donor account to switch rather than your main account, that way all you are switching is 2 minor direct debits (say, £1 to charities) and not messing around with your financial services providers. You also get the stability of retaining your main account for years - unless of course you do have a good reason to leave a bank.