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0 pointsgtCameron14y ago0 comments

Honest question, since I haven't done it in 10 years, but what is the big hassle in switching banks? Shouldn't it be as easy as signing up for a new account and taking a cashiers check out of the old one and closing it. I'm curious to know what other hurdles they put in place to keep you locked in.

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8 comments · 3 top-level

Retric14y ago· 2 in thread

Banks don't close accounts. So you can have a reoccurring charge on a canceled debit card show up on a canceled bank account get charged for it get an over draft, have a negative balance which you get charged for every day. Then once the balance is negative enough they sell your 'debt' to a third party debt collector.

PS: The first half of this happened to me costing me close to 300$ in 2 weeks and it's only me double checking that everything was fine that I got informed. At no point in this process did they attempt to contact me and they would have gladly let this grow into the thousands before contacting me for payment etc. O and the debt card had been canceled for over 3 months before that transaction happened.

jcampbell114y ago

They don't by default, but they can completely close an account. When they politely refuse, tell them your debit card and checks have been lost and need to be canceled. The bank is on the hook for charges to a debit card that has been reported lost, so it solves the problem of recurring charges to the debit card.

Retric14y ago

I had reported the card lost which is why it was canceled for 2 months before I closed the account. However, reoccurring charges setup before that point are transitioned into direct bank drafts and continue after that point. As to closing the account, they teller said "it's closed" what are the magic words to say after that?

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ars14y ago· 2 in thread

You don't need a cashiers check, you can write an ordinary check.

If you have bill pay setup then you have to copy all those accounts to the new account.

You have to keep track of which checks you have outstanding, and especially if you have some people who take their time to cash them you may have to wait 6 months before you can close the account.

fletchowns14y ago

You are just making my point more. Not only are you missing a bunch of other things that would need to be done (What about my HSA? What about all my other recurring payments not setup through the bank? What about my direct deposits?), it would take a substantial amount of time to take care of that. Why would I want to waste a day doing all that crap? I would definitely forget some things too.

Yes, it's possible, but it's a pain in the ass. I should be able to export my entire account from Bank A and login to Bank B and import it in a matter of minutes. They know that it is difficult, that's why they are doing these fee raises and getting away with it.

eru14y ago

In the UK (and some other countries) your new bank often offers to take on all that hassle with your old bank, as an incentive to switching.

Dobbs14y ago· 1 in thread

Bill pay, direct deposit, automatic savings withdrawal, subscription services, saved billing info (iTunes, Amazon) to name a few.

gujk14y ago

Free startup idea: create a pseudo-bank that provides a pass-through account number for all this stuff.

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