Switching banks really is not that hard

BANKS at times resemble that of a tumultuous relationship, you’re unhappy, you complain to your friends and family, but don’t do anything.

PEOPLE love to whinge and moan about their banks but few bother to do something about it.

It can at times resemble that of a tumultuous relationship, you’re unhappy, you complain about it to your friends and family, but don’t do anything about it.

Well the same goes for banking customers.

Switching financial institutions was never meant to be easy, in fact most people can’t be bothered getting off their behind and jumping ship.

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Moving a day-to-day transaction account was made a lot easier a few years ago when the Federal Government introduced the “tick ‘n’ flick” program in 2012.

Say what?

Yep, pretty much no-one knows anything about it.

In fact one bank boss once described it as a useless program to attract new customers and instead banks would be better off running up and down a suburban mall to get people to switch banks than to publicise the program.

Since its rollout three years ago the scheme has only seen a few hundred people use it each week to change banks.

Under the scheme, a person wanting to switch banks simply needs to visit their new financial institution, give details of their previous bank and the new provider takes care of shifting across all of their direct debits and credits from the past 13 months.

The banks have regularly argued a majority of customers are happy and don’t want to switch, but if you ask around many are quick to groan about their financial institution.

Going back a few years now before I signed up to my first home loan I used to change banks like the wind.

I hopped from one institution to another and then another just so I could get the best deal possible.

Whether it was free ATM withdrawals or no monthly account-keeping fees or simply an incentive like $100 cash to sign up I’d do it.

And this was before the tick ‘n’ flick program came into play, so it involved me ringing every company I had a direct debit with and handing over my new details.

Most people simply couldn’t be bothered doing this.

But you see banks are a cunning bunch, transaction accounts mean big business because the theory is if they get you in with your day-to-day transaction account then it opens up the doors to shower you with other deals and hopefully get you to sign up to more products including home loans, credit cards and personal loans.

Data from business intelligence and media provider RFi showed up until March, in the past three years only 10 per cent of Australian had switched their transaction or everyday bank account to another financial institution.

These figures are extremely low, but with banks hungrier than ever to snare your business now might be the time to make the cut and find a new bank.

If you’re paying ATM fees or monthly-account keeping fees you’re simply throwing money down the drain.

These plenty of fee-free accounts available and financial institutions that offer free ATM transactions from multiple machines.

It pays to shop around so get off your backside, stop complaining and do something about that love-hate relationship with your financial institution.