The “tick ‘n’ flick” program used to jump banks in Australia that few people use

A BANK-SWITCHING scheme designed to make jumping financial institutions easier in Australia has failed to work, partly because few know about it.

Australian Bankers Association’s chief executive officer Steven Munchenberg said most banking customers don’t want to switch institutions. Picture: News Corp Australia.

A BANK-SWITCHING scheme designed to make jumping financial institutions easier for customers has failed to work.

The program — dubbed “tick ‘n’ flick” — was introduced in 2012 to make switching day-to-day transaction accounts simple, but new figures show only a few hundred people have bothered to use it.

The scheme was introduced under the previous Federal Government but New Australian and Payments and Clearing Association figures show only about 330 people per week have used the scheme and few Australians even know it exists.

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.

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A program introduced to make switching banks easier has failed to work, largely because few people know it exists. Picture: News Corp Australia

But the Customer Owned Bank Association’s deputy chief executive officer Mark Degotardi criticised the program, describing it as “clunky.”

“Most people probably don’t even know there is a system and I’m not surprised there has been a slow take up,’’ he said.

“An overwhelmingly driver for consumers in the banking space is convenience and this system is inconvenient and clunky and most people don’t know it exists.”

The figures showed about 1300 people a month have used “tick ‘n’ flick” to have their automatic payments switched to a new bank account.

Roughly 35,000 Australians have used the “tick ‘n’ flick” program to jump banks since it was introduced in July, 2012. Picture: News Corp Australia

APCA figures showed in August this year there were nearly 440,000 new bank accounts opened and 240,000 bank accounts closed.

The Association’s chief executive officer Chris Hamilton conceded customers were missing out on a system which makes switching simple.

“It’s available through all the account-keeping institutions but given the numbers its not as heavily used as the number of people who are opening and closing accounts,’’ he said.

Australian Payments Clearing Association’s chief executive officer Chris Hamilton said the “tick ‘n’ flick” program could be better used. Picture: News Corp Australia

But Australian Bankers’ Association’s chief executive officer Steven Munchenberg said customer satisfaction with banks was at a record high and most customers had no desire to switch.

Australian Bankers Association’s chief executive officer Steven Munchenberg said most banking customers don’t want to switch institutions. Picture: News Corp Australia.

“Four out of five customers are pleasantly happy with their banks so they are unlikely to want to switch,’’ he said.

“Then there’s a range of people who switch banks without using the service.”

Originally published as The “tick ‘n’ flick” program used to jump banks in Australia that few people use