A Bank for Life? Why??
Once upon a time a bank was for life - you would sign up when you were young and run all your affairs through them until you died. You would probably have a personal relationship with your bank manager, who would make the decision about whether you could extend your overdraft or have a mortgage. Those days are over.
Now when you are dealing with your bank you might never see the same person twice - the certainly wouldn’t rememeber your name. You might even never deal with a human at all, just the impersonal effeciency of websites and the robotic intonations of an automated phone system.
Given that the personal touch has gone, it is surprising how reluctant most people are to switch bank. It is an oft repeated fact that a person is more likely to get divorced than change their banking provider. whether this is actually true or not, there is certainly a great deal of reluctance to change.
There are a number of reasons why people seem prepared to put up with poor customer service, high charges and inconvenience from their bank. Personal loyalty may no longer be a factor, but unfortunately the length of time with a bank was seen as one of the components of a persons credit score. Luckily this is changing, but paranoia over credit ratings has been one of the things that has kept many trapped in a loveless relationship with their bank.
The other main reason why historically people have been reluctantto move to a better bank is fear of the inconvenience of switching. horror stories of direct debit payments messing up and charges abound. It is no longer necessarily the minefield it once was however. In the modern era when banks have to compete much harder for customers, great steps have been made in making the process easier. Some banks will even have a dedicated team to help their customer painlessly switch bank account. These will typically handle things like making sure all payments in and out are transferered.
You wouldn’t stick with a supermarket where the produce was rotten. You wouldn’t stick with an electricity supplier that overcharged you. Why stick with a bad bank?
