“Things don’t have to change the world to be important.” Steve Jobs

So, now we’re being told to switch bank accounts because we simply aren’t doing it enough. I would hazard a guess that this is not something many of us have done or even think of doing because we are comfortable with and very loyal to our existing banks – and let’s not forget the time and effort a move would involve. But forget all of that for a moment and let’s consider it. After all, what do we get from our existing bank? What are the advantages of switching and are they all as bad as each other?

I think most of you would agree that you don’t get much at all. Yes, your money is much safer than it would be than under your mattress and you may benefit with ever-changing interest rates but it’s hardly life-changing.

Switching is easier and apparently only takes seven days and that includes moving all of your direct debits over. This certainly saves time and hassle but it still doesn’t answer the question of why we should switch and what we get in return.

Banks don’t have a very good customer service reputation and existing customers just want to be “treated better” which in all fairness is not a hard ask. How will banks contend with this if they get an influx of new customers? Reputation is everything after all and can easily be tarnished by bad customer service and no one ever forgets bad customer service.

It will be interesting to see what transpires from all of this as there will be questions and lots of them and if the need to switch is so important then they need to be prepared to answer them because I for one need a lot of convincing.

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AIMS Accountants for Business are the largest independent association of professionally qualified accountants in the UK specialising in accountancy for small, local and independent businesses. AIMS are no ordinary accountants and we are more than just number crunchers!