Why it pays to switch your bank account – What are you waiting for?

More people in the UK are switching their bank accounts than ever before, but why?

Well for a start it’s a lot easier than it used to be. No more carrying a bag of your cash through the town before standing in an hour-long queue at your new branch to hand it over and fill in 20 forms.

Nowadays it’s all about the money (and service is still very important of course). With top banks along with newer, more digitally savvy banks offering great incentives to switch and with everything handled online it’s so much easier and well worth your while. So, what are you waiting for?

According to data from the Current Account Switch Service (CASS), which was launched in 2013 to make it easier for UK consumers and small businesses to switch their current account providers, over 6 million successful switches have been made since its launch.

In 2021, there were 872,702 successful switches made through the CASS. However, it's worth noting that this only includes switches made through the service, and there may be additional switches made outside of CASS.

As for how this has changed in the last 20 years, data from the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) in 2005 found that only 8% of personal current account holders had switched their account in the previous three years. In 2011, this figure had risen to 9%, and by 2016 it had increased to 13%.

So, while it's difficult to determine exactly how many people switch bank accounts in the UK each year, it appears that the number has been slowly increasing over the last 20 years.

Today’s top deals around switching are from Natwest and Santander.