Switching more than 1 account

calmac26

I'm currently with Clydesdale bank.  I have 3 accounts - a current everyday, a current bills/direct debits and a savings account.  I want to switch to another bank.  Has anyone had experience of switching more than one account?  Is it easy? And how are all the standing orders I have between the 3 accounts handled?

colsten

The Current Account Switch Service (CASS) is, as the name suggests, for current accounts only. It works very well, as a long as people remember that applying for a current account and switching an existing account into it are two entirely separate processes. If you want to move your current accounts, first open a new account elsewhere. As and when you have full access to that new account (i.e. online/mobile banking, debit card, PIN, any card reader etc), request the switch(es). It is dead easy to request the switch of multiple accounts - - you just have to fill in the same switch request form multiple times.

Savings accounts can not by switched by CASS, and AFAIK, only Natwest/RBS/Ulster offer the switch of a savings account into a current account. Far better to move your savings to wherever you want to move them to yourself. Note that you don't have to have your savings with the same bank you have one or more current accounts with.

Zanderman

calmac26 said:

I'm currently with Clydesdale bank.  I have 3 accounts - a current everyday, a current bills/direct debits and a savings account.  I want to switch to another bank.  Has anyone had experience of switching more than one account?  Is it easy? And how are all the standing orders I have between the 3 accounts handled?

Switching is very easy. 
You can switch current accounts using the CASS service that all banks offer. 
But one by one.
And not, usually, savings accounts.

If you want to switch bank (not necessarily the same as switching one account) i.e. switch all your accounts with one bank to another, you need to do the current accounts one by one (opening two new ones at the other bank and switching the two old ones in, one by one) and sort out the savings account manually - by opening a new one at the other bank and then closing the old one. 

Any SOs into, or out of, the savings account will have to be re-set up manually.  And if the current accounts have SOs to that savings account you'll have to manually cancel those (the switching service will reproduce them but it won't know the savings account is being closed).

So switching multiple accounts, including a savings account, is not quite so easy.

But why switch banks entirely?  It's generally thought better to have accounts with more than one bank.  If the bank has an IT problem and you only have one bank you're stuck.  Why not leave one of the current accounts and/or the savings account, where it is?

Eco_Miser

Standing orders between two current accounts at the same bank will possibly not be switched when one or both the accounts are switched.

Certainly this is what happened when I switched one of my TSB accounts.