Frequently Asked Questions
You should find answers to most, if not all of your questions about switching banks and the services we provide on this page. However, please do feel free to reach out us at via the contact page if you cannot find the answer to your question.
Yes. What's more, it's a very simple thing to do. Our "How To Switch" guide will guide you through the process, step-by-step.
It's not a complete free-for-all, though. Banks are unlikely to continue to pay you incentives if you simply switch backwards and forwards from Bank A to Bank B and back to Bank A. You typically have to move to a bank with whom you have no recent relationship. You'll probably also not be eligible for incentive payments if you switch between banks that are part of the same group. For example, switching from NatWest to RBS (both part of the same group) would be unlikely to qualify for an incentive. Similarly, Halifax and Bank of Scotland are also part of the same group. You can still switch, but you'd be unlikely to receive an incentive payment. Our advice is to always check the conditions of the offer on the new bank's website.
Yes, you can. There's no requirement to be with a bank for a minimum term before deciding to switch. We've personally opened accounts, setup two direct debits, then switched successfully to a new bank as soon as those payments have cleared. So have thousands of other customers, just like you.
Your new bank will record the fact that you've applied for an account with them on your credit file. Lots of applications in a short period of time wont necessarily affect your credit rating in the medium to long term, but it could look a little odd if you then apply for credit soon after you've switched lots of times. If you're planning on applying for a major credit facility, such as a mortgage or car loan in the immediate future, our advice is to hold off switching banks until your credit application is complete.
No. As long as you're not doing so with the intention of committing a fraud (banks have legal obligations to prevent stuff like that), you wont be "de-banked" or blacklisted just because you switch between banks.
Yes, you can. Your new bank may offer an overdraft and be prepared to take on your debt from your old bank. However, you may need to pay off the overdraft with the old bank before you switch. As ever, check the terms and conditions of the offer carefully before you initiate the switch process, just to make sure the new bank meets your requirements.
Yes, absolutely. The process is exactly the same as for an account in a sole name. The only provisos are that both parties must agree to the switch, and you can't switch a joint account to a sole. Weirdly, you can switch a sole account to a joint account.
You can nominate a switch date to suit you when you sign up with your new bank. The switching process is usually seamless and it really shouldn't matter which date you choose. However, if you're worried and you have a lot of automated payments leaving your account on a given date (for example, just after payday), you could always avoid that date to absolutely minimise the potential for any problems.
Usually, yes. Most banks offering incentives to swtich insist you use the automated Current Account Switching Service (CASS) to do so. CASS will automatically close your old account for you once the transfer is complete. You could handle the transfer yourself and move everything across manually, but you'll probably find that to be a time consuming process, and your new bank wont pay you the switching incentive if you don't use CASS.
All your existing standing orders and direct debits will move seamlessly across to your new bank as part of the switching process, automatically. You don't need to worry about a thing. It's all taken care of for you, free of charge.
No. The Current Account Switch Service (CASS) takes care of all of that for you. Your salary and any other incoming payments will be automatically redirected to your new account. Any regular standing orders and direct debits will be automatically switched to your new account, too. All part of the CASS service.
In the unlikely event there a problems with the switch, any interest or fees you might be charged as a result will be reimbursed by your new bank. That's guaranteed by Pay.UK who provide the systems that handle switching and much of the UK payments infrastructure. Since its launch, the Current Account Switch Service (CASS) has successfully switched almost 10m accounts across 50 participating banks.
The Current Account Switch Service (CASS) is a free, automated process that makes moving your old bank to a new one simple and stress-free. You simply give your new bank details of your old bank and pick a switch date. Between them they then take of moving all your existing payments and balances to your new account, and will arrange for your old account to be closed. And it works for both personal and business current accounts. It takes no more than 7 working days and is underpinned by the Current Account Switch Guarantee. That means your new bank will refund any fees or interest you accidentally get charged if there are problems with the switch.
One of the rules of the UK Direct Debit scheme is that we must pre-notify you of all payments before we collect any money from you. We do this via email several days ahead of your initial payment, and each subsequent payment. Your payments are also collected at a fixed frequency. The membership payment is collected annually, and the subscription monthly (unless you have taken advantage of our 50% off offer and chosen to pay your subscription annually too).
We will send you a welcome email as soon as you take out a subscription. Our emails comply with some pretty strict and nerdy authentication standards (known as SPF, DMARC and DKIM) to ensure they don't get inadvertently treated as Spam, but please check your Spam folder if it doesn't arrive. It then usually takes your bank a few working days to get things set up at their end.
Absolutely. You will routinely receive a receipt from us via email after every payment you make. If you need a copy, just get in touch with us via the contact page and we'll send another one out to you right away.
The Direct Debit Guarantee was established under the Payment Services Regulations 2017. It's a guarantee offered to customers by all banks and building societies that accept instructions to pay Direct Debits. If there are any changes to your Direct Debit amount or frequency, we will notify you within 10 working days of your account being debited. If an error is made in the payment of a Direct Debit, you are entitled to a full and immediate refund from your bank. You can cancel a Direct Debit at any time.
The Direct Debit systems themselves comply with multiple BACS-approved formats and standards. Before any payments are made, your bank verifies the mandate(s) you complete online against BACS records and your account information. These measures are designed to protect you and dramatically reduces any risk of fraud.
Very. Every organisation using Direct Debit is inspected and vetted by the banks before we're allowed to collect your money. We comply fully with all aspects of the Direct Debit Guarantee (see above). When you set up a Direct Debit with us, your details are processed securely by our payments partner, Stripe, one of the largest processors of online payments in the world.
We use Stripe Payments UK Limited for the purposes of securely processing UK Direct Debit payments from our members. Stripe is an established industry leader in secure online payments, processing over $800bn in payments, across over 135 currencies and payment methods annually.
Erm, we don't really. We set up SwitchPiglet with the joint aims of benefiting charities and helping our members, not to make ourselves shed loads of money. The economics of processing payments, particularly lots of very low value payments (which is basically what we do), are not great for us. We pay a per-transaction fee every time we collect a payment, we have ongoing website hosting costs, we have to pay VAT to HMRC every quarter, and we're liable for corporation tax on any profit we do make at the end of the year. If we properly accounted for all the time we invest running the service, our accountant would be horrified to discover we are probably losing money every day.
Full disclosure - we do very occasionally make a small commission on any products we recommend to our members, should you click through and purchase from a link we send you in our newsletter, on our website or a Tweet. Not always, but sometimes. Hardly ever, though. Where we do, this is at absolutely no additional cost to you. We only ever recommend products and services that are a good deal for our members. Links to recommended products where we are eligible for a commission are always denoted by an asterisk* for full visibility.
We don't. You do. When you first join us you'll receive a welcome email which includes a link to a voting page inviting you to choose a charity. At the end of every month we collate all the votes cast by our members and donate to the winning charity. We publish details of the vote, and the winning charity on the site and our Twitter/X feed, along with evidence of the donations made.
We are looking into more tax efficient ways of making larger contributions to charity. To this end, if you have links to, or work for a UK registered charity, we'd be interested in having a conversation. Please do get in touch via the contact bubble below or the contact page.
SwitchPiglet is a trading name of Astcote House Limited. We're a limited company registered in England and Wales. Our company registration number is 15226876 and you can find us by searching the registry at Companies House online. Our directors have over 80 years in business combined, including decades working at the heart of the banking and payments industries, as well as in other sectors such as retail and hospitality.
SwitchPiglet was launched in May 2024 with the aim of removing more of the friction customers continue to experience when switching banks in the UK. More broadly, we enable our members to maximise the wealth of opportunities presented by companies offering incentives to switch to their competitors. We also continuously bring our members the latest money saving tips through a regular news letter. Lastly, we make regular monthly donations to charities nominated by our members.
Absolutely nothing. There's no minimum commitment to membership. You are free to cancel at any time at no cost or penalty to you. Please just bear in mind that most banks offering switching incentives require you to switch two "active" direct debits. That usually means payments from two direct debits have been made in the last 12-13 months or so. Therefore, if you're planning on switching multiple times, we recommend you don't cancel, at least not until you've finished switching. And if you do cancel and then decide you want to rejoin in the future, you're free to do so and we'll welcome you back.
You are free to cancel your Direct Debit payments at any time. You can do so in a couple of different ways...
If you want to do it yourself online, simply click the "My Account" link at the top of the page. Enter your email address and you'll be sent a secure login link via email. Click that link and you'll be sent straight to your account page on Stripe. From here you can cancel your Direct Debit(s) with us.
Alternatively, you can simply logon to your online bank account via the web or app, and cancel the Direct Debit from there. Your local bank branch or telephone banking service will also be able to do this for you. Just remember the Direct Debit(s) will be set up in the name of our parent company "Astcote House" and not SwitchPiglet.
Sounds complicated? It isn't, we promise. However, if you don't want to do it yourself you can always just drop us a line via the contact page and we'll do it for you right away.
Of course you can. Just click on the "Unsubscribe" link at the bottom of any of our emails and you'll be taken off of our mailing lists. Alternatively, just get in touch via the contact page, let us know you want to be unsubscribed, and we'll do the rest. Please be aware that unsubscribing will only stop you receiving our emails. It wont cancel your Direct Debit(s) with us. See above for details of how to cancel your Direct Debit payments with us.
No. The Current Account Switch Service is solely for current accounts. It will not work for savings accounts, credit cards or ISAs. You can still switch those products, of course, and we would encourage you to continuously shop around for the best deals. However, different processes exist for those types of accounts.
