The British people are very reluctant, in the main, to switch bank accounts. The tides ebb and flow, fashions come and go, but we’re still just as likely to have the same account we did when we were 16 when we reach the age of 60.

To overcome our inertia, the Government required Britain’s major banks to cooperate on a system that would allow domestic and commercial users to switch their accounts within seven days. It’s been five and a bit years since the change came into place and, according to Moneyfacts, 3,500,000 have made the switch up until January 2017.

If you’re tired of the bank you use for your business, how do you go about changing? Burton Beavan investigates.

Choose the bank you want to switch to

The bank you wish to switch to must be a member of the Current Account Switch Service. You can see a full list by clicking here.

To be eligible for the scheme, you must have fewer than 50 members of staff and your turnover must be less than £6.5m a year.

Your payments will switch to your new account

Upon successful transfer, all of the standing orders and direct debits set up against your current account will swap over to your new one. It’s worth spending a few minutes checking every standing order and direct debit listed on your internet banking platform and cancelling those ones you no longer need.

Download all your old bank statements

You should take care to download every statement or invoice you can currently access from your existing bank account. They may not be available after the switch has taken place.

Choose the date your new bank account goes live

As long as you don’t select a Saturday, Sunday, or a Bank Holiday, you can choose the date on which you want to switch to take place.

Up until that date, please continue to use your existing banking arrangements – cards, internet banking, mobile apps, and so on. You should make sure that you don’t sign up to any new standing orders or direct debits for your existing bank account because anything you do sign up to within seven days of the transfer will not make it across to the new account.

Will your new bank give you what your old bank gave you?

Different banks have different lending criteria so it is not a given that if you have a £10,000 overdraft on a Barclays account that you will receive the same if you transfer over to Lloyds.

There may be set up fees for any debt facility you have on your new account and it’s unlikely you’ll be able to receive a refund from the bank you’re leaving on the unused parts of any annual fee, like an overdraft.

As much as your old bank’s seeming obstreperousness and their reliance on computers to make decisions for them may have driven you up the wall from time to time, they do know you. You may be far likelier to be able to access additional debt facilities (like a working capital loan) because you have a history with them.

For businesses with turnover of £1.5m or more, usually dealt with by a bank’s commercial department, you will have built up a bank of trust with the people whose opinions can override those of a computer over time. You might have been able to go to them in the past and said “I need this and it’ll be paid back in full by this date”. You’ll have done what you promised time and time again so they will now believe in you when you make a request of them. You’ll have to start that process all again from scratch with a new bank.

Some banks offered favourable rates on certain products by making you keep as much of your business with them as possible – invoice factoring is a prime example. You may find yourself renegotiating rates on your existing facilities which will never be as good as the ones you had before when your business main account and savings account were with them.

Which bank should you move to?

That’s really your decision as a business owner. It’s always worth using a comparison site to check out what the latest deal from the various different banks are on their business account.

Getting started

You can download a checklist for switching from the Government’s website by clicking here.

Want to talk with us about it? Whilst we might not be able to recommend a bank per se, please send us the offers any bank has made you and we’ll help you compare those offers against what you currently have. Call us today on 01606 333900 or email hello@burtonbeavan.co.uk.