MSE News: Bank switches topped 950,000 in past year - here are the winners and losers

Shedman wrote: »

If those are really the net movements for these banks through switching most of which will have been driven by cash incentives, then the amount of referral / cashback money they must have paid out to achieve these pretty minor movements cannot surely have been justified, especially where there's been a net loss (not that I'm complaining if someone wants to give me free cash )

For assessing the cost of promotions, it's not really the net (gains minus losses) figure that's relevant but the larger total gains number, in that most of the gains will have resulted in a bonus being payable regardless of how many customers left, assuming that the baseline volume outside of promotional periods is mostly 'genuine' switchers of 'main' accounts, and that the extra joiners will largely be doing do to qualify for the incentive.

The effect of such promotions can be seen by comparing gains from one quarter to the next, which are conveniently published side by side this quarter, as the reporting period moves from six months in arrears to three months, as per page 4 at https://www.bacs.co.uk/DocumentLibrary/CASS_dashboard_-_published_25_Jul_18.pdf

We have been with Barclays for over 25 years and never had any problems with them. I wouldn't switch away for a few quid. Opening additional accounts, like Tesco, for the interest rate, was the only move I considered worth making.