More than 8m ‘ditch and switch’

More than eight million current accounts have been switched since a service making it easier for customers to swap their banks or building society easier was launched.

The Current Account Switch Service (Cass) was launched in 2013. Under the scheme, switches are completed in seven working days compared with up to 30 before. Payments are automatically moved over to the new account and a guarantee means customers are not left out of pocket if something goes wrong with the switch.

Data provided voluntarily by banks also revealed Santander, Nationwide and Starling Bank had the highest net switching gains between October and December 2021, among those customers using Cass.

David Piper, head of service lines at Pay.UK, owner and operator of Cass said with cost of living rises continuing to put pressure on many households “it’s more important than ever that people assess whether their existing current account is best suited to their needs”.