tl;drâthe old bank unilaterally debited an amount from the new bank two days after the CASS completion date. They wrote to me telling me I was overdrawn but didnât tell me theyâd reclaimed the amount from the new bank.
ââ
I used the Current Account Switching Service for the second time in recent months.
In November I used it to switch from First Direct to Clydesdaleâs B account. No problems at all.
In January I used it to switch from Clydesdaleâs B account to NatWest.
The first switch earnt me a ÂŁ250 bribe, the second will be ÂŁ125. But thereâs no such thing as a free lunch.
The second switch all appeared to go well with plenty of money in a credit balance being transferred. W writhing fine until two days after the Clydesdale account closed, they took ÂŁ54 from The now non existent account to put me into overdraft. They wrote to me to say I was overdrawn.
Clydesdale weâre unable to explain this despite, after a further two days, reclaiming the ÂŁ54 from the new NatWest account yet still telling me I was overdrawn with them.
Another issue to be wary of is they require 7 working days notice to fully cancel the switch. So unfortunately my journey with HSBC is going to be longer than I would wish.
The first CASS I ever used was Alliance and Leicester. They not only failed to switch about half my DDs and standing orders - cancelling them instead - they couldnât give me a password for online banking until 2 weeks after the account was open. Plus they couldnât give me a firm date for switchover, just sometime in a two week window, so I didnât know when to move my salaryâŚ
It led to my rent not being paid and a lot of upset companies wondering why Iâd cancelled the DD with them. Was a total ballache to sort out.
Iâm sure itâs a lot slicker now⌠they talk of guarantees and stuff, and if my experience was common the newspapers would be all over it⌠But I still canât bring myself to trust the process⌠it took a day to switch 15 direct debits to Monzo (well, a couple needed a bit more work, the hardest being filling in a PDF and emailing it).
Alliance and Leicester were truly rubbish though⌠I didnât last more than a month or two with them before I left. They thought customers were an inconvenience and only tolerated them because they were making money out of them.
What you described with A&L was not the âCurrent Account Switching Serviceâ which is a scheme only been around for a few years. That was merely a service offered by banks to switch current accounts on your behalf but not under the rules of a defined industry scheme.
Credit where itâs due. In the half a dozen phone calls Iâve had with Clydesdale, their customer service has been excellent. Itâs right up there with First Direct.
They admit theyâve dropped the ball on this one. Theyâre feeding back my experience to their CASS team and, out of the blue, they offered me ÂŁ60 as a goodwill gesture.
Their app didnât work for me but their customer service is extremely good and you can get through to them as quick as with First Direct but on a freefone 0800 number.
Not directly related, but there is also the problem that some companies donât seem to update their systems in case of CASS. On the PlusNet forums there were loads of reports a while ago about customers who had used the CASS and for the 1st 12 months all seemed well. Afterwards payments failed. Apparantly PlusNet never updated the account details of the customer, and for the 1st 12 months the payment request was simply forwarded to the new account by the old bank. But that only happens for 12 months after the switch.
So, another tldr: Keep an eye out for any potentially missing dd in 12 months time, and/or contact any providers who havenât confirmed your new account details in writing after the switch.
Oh, I didnât know that. Thanks! (I actually checked the paperwork for my last switch, and indeed it says 3 years in there. I didnât even notice âŚ)
On that article there is also this nugget:
The new rules will see all customers entitled to a MINIMUM redirection period of three years. However, the rules will also stipulate that there should be a minimum of 13 months between the last stray payment and the date the redirection period ends.
If thatâs indeed (universally) true, then that should be the end of these practices, as DD that havenât been used for 13 months are usually deactivated anyway, arenât they? That would be fantastic!
Will anything be offered for people that want to switch their direct debits over without closing their existing account? For the time being until the whole cash situation is sorted out I still need my legacy bank.
LMAO, the way I initially read that was that you wanted the title âMrsâ on your Monzo card and all I could think was âplease, no, no titles Monzo!â
So Q1 - which year?
There are three weeks remaining if itâs this year!
Seriously, it would be great to see this come on stream. Iâm already using Monzo as my primary current account but still have some remnants left on my First Direct account and Iâd love to be able to do a proper transfer to make sure that nothing gets missed.
My partner got her Monzo current account but has been with Barclays for nearly 30 years and wants to make sure all her payments get transferred smoothly so sheâs holding out for CASS.
Meanwhile, Starling has had it for ages. Oh, and Apple Pay too. Appreciate there are lots of features on the backlog, but these two are still in most peopleâs top two most wanted I suspect.
my Nationwide account is just sat open taking my Child Benefit and Tax Credits paymentsâŚ
