How to Switch Bank Accounts in the UK (2026)
Switching bank accounts in the UK takes seven working days, it is guaranteed, and you do almost none of the work. You apply at the bank you are moving to and it handles the rest, including closing the account you are leaving.
More than 12 million people have done it through the Current Account Switch Service, across more than 50 participating banks and building societies. It is one of the few pieces of British financial plumbing that genuinely works as advertised.
Three things do not move, though, and the banks bury them. Recurring card payments stay behind. So do overdrafts, savings and your transaction history. And the one nobody mentions until it bites: credits from overseas are not included in the switch at all.
This guide covers the seven day timetable, what the guarantee actually promises, the three gaps, what switching does to your credit file, and how many accounts you are allowed to hold while you work it out.
Keep the Money From Abroad Moving While You Switch
The switch service redirects domestic payments and leaves overseas ones out. If you are paid from another country, that is the gap to cover.
- Local UK details of your own: a sort code and account number that are not tied to the bank you are leaving, so an overseas payer never has to be told twice
- 40 currencies in one balance: hold what you are sent and convert when the rate suits, rather than at whatever your bank decides on the day
- Mid-market exchange rate: fees published as a percentage from 0.24%, rather than folded into a rate you cannot check
- Free to open and hold: no signup fee, no subscription and no minimum balance while you sort the switch out
- Independent of the switch: it is not a current account, so nothing about it changes when your old account closes
How to Switch Bank Accounts in the UK
To switch a bank account in the UK, apply at the bank you are moving to, give it your old account details and pick a switch date at least seven working days ahead. It contacts your old bank, moves your payments, transfers your balance and closes the old account on the day. You do not need to speak to your old bank at any point.
The Seven Working Day Timetable
Seven working days is the whole of it, and the count excludes weekends and bank holidays, so a switch started on a Friday completes the following Tuesday week rather than the following Friday. The Current Account Switch Service confirms you can choose and agree a switch date with your new bank or building society, provided it is at least seven working days away and not a weekend or bank holiday.
Stage | What happens | Who does it |
|---|---|---|
You apply | Give the new bank your old sort code, account number and chosen date | You, once |
Days 1 to 6 | Direct debits and standing orders are copied across, payers and collectors are told | The two banks |
Switch date | Balance transfers, new account goes live, old account closes | The two banks |
After the switch | Payments sent to the old account are redirected automatically | The switch service |
What You Have to Do Yourself
This is the short answer to how to switch banks in the UK. One form, one date, and the receiving bank carries the rest.
Almost nothing during the switch, and two things after it. During: give the new bank the old account details and a date. That is the entire job, which is why account switching in the UK is far less work than its reputation suggests.
Afterwards you update anything that pays by card rather than by direct debit, and you tell anyone who pays you from another country. Both of those sit outside the guarantee and both are covered in full below.
Choosing Your Switch Date
The date is yours to choose, which is unusual, and it is the one decision in a current account switch in the UK that is genuinely worth thinking about. Pick a date that is not payday and not the day a big direct debit lands. The service handles both correctly, but a quiet week gives you room to notice anything that did not come across, and there is always something on the card payment side.
Leave enough money in the old account to cover anything due before the switch date. The balance transfers on the day rather than at the moment you apply, so the old account stays live and stays used for the whole seven days.
Switching Banks, Changing Banks, and the UK Current Account Switch Service
People use several phrases for one thing. Switching banks in the UK, changing banks in the UK, account switching in the UK and a UK bank account switch all describe the same process, run by the same body, under the same guarantee. The formal name is the UK Current Account Switch Service, usually shortened to CASS, and it is the only mechanism that carries the seven day promise.
The distinction that does matter is between a switch and an ordinary account opening. A current account switch in the UK closes the old account and moves everything on a fixed date. Opening a second account moves nothing and closes nothing. Changing bank accounts in the UK through the service is the first. Walking into a branch and filling in a form is the second. Only the first counts as a bank account switch in the UK in the formal sense, and the two have completely different consequences for your direct debits.
If you are new to the country rather than moving between British banks, the starting point is different again, and our guide to the UK bank account options for non-residents covers it.
Before You Pick a Bank to Switch To
Most advice on how to change banks in the UK stops at the incentive. A switch locks you into one bank's pricing for everything, including the part charged as a percentage rather than as a fee.
- Hold the currency, not just the pounds: 40 currencies in one balance, so being paid from abroad stops depending on your bank's rate
- Account details that survive a switch: your own local details, so an overseas payer never has to be updated again
- Published percentage pricing: fees from 0.24% at the mid-market rate, against bank margins running to several percent
- Free to open and hold: no subscription and no minimum, so it can sit alongside whichever bank you land on
What the Current Account Switch Guarantee Actually Covers
Every UK bank switch through the service carries the same guarantee, and it covers the mechanics and the money if the mechanics fail. Payments in and out are moved, your balance is transferred on the switch date, payments sent to the old account are redirected, and if anything goes wrong you are refunded any charges or interest incurred on the old or the new account as a result of the error.
Payments In and Out
Direct debits and standing orders are moved across and the organisations that collect them are notified. Incoming payments such as salary and benefits are redirected, and first direct describes arranging for any payments accidentally made to your old account to be automatically redirected to your new account.
One detail worth knowing: any debit card or direct debit transaction you had previously asked your bank to stop should remain stopped after the switch. A cancelled payment does not quietly come back to life at the new bank.
Your Balance and the Old Account
The balance moves on the switch date and the old account closes the same day. You do not close it yourself, and you should not, because the service needs it open to read the payment instructions off it.
Redirection then runs in the background. Starling states that money sent to your old account automatically redirects to the new one for three years, which is long enough to catch the annual payments that are the usual culprits.
The Refund Promise
This is the part that makes a UK bank switch genuinely low risk. If an error in the switch causes a charge or costs you interest, on either account, you get it back. That is a real commitment rather than a customer service aspiration, and it is why changing banks in the UK through the service beats closing and reopening by hand.
It does not cover the things that were never in the switch. A subscription that fails because it was tied to your old card is not a switch error, it is a card payment, and the distinction is the subject of the next section.
The Guarantee Covers Errors, Not Omissions
Read the promise carefully and it is about mistakes: if something in the switch goes wrong, you are put back where you were. It is not a promise that everything attached to your old account comes with you.
Three categories were never included in the first place, so nothing has gone wrong when they do not arrive. Knowing which three is the difference between a switch that is genuinely painless and one that costs you a missed payment.
What Does Not Move When You Switch
Three things stay behind when you switch a bank account in the UK. Recurring card payments, because they are attached to your old debit card number rather than to the account. Credits from overseas, which first direct states are not included in the switch. And arranged overdrafts, savings, transaction history, digital wallets and open banking permissions.
Recurring Card Payments and Continuous Payment Authorities
A direct debit is an instruction on your account. A recurring card payment is an instruction on your card, and your card number changes when you switch. first direct is explicit: recurring transactions or continuous payment authorities, where a company uses your debit card details, will not transfer, and you need to update the company with your new card details.
Lloyds says the same thing in its own words, that it will not transfer regular payments and subscriptions set up using your old debit card details and that you need to contact each provider. In practice this is streaming services, gyms, app stores, insurance paid by card and anything you signed up to on a phone. Check the last twelve months of statements rather than trusting memory.
Payments From Overseas
This is the gap that matters most on this site and the one the comparison tables never show. first direct states plainly that credits from overseas will not be included in the switch. The redirection service is built for domestic payments, so an international transfer arriving at your closed account is not forwarded the way a UK salary is.
The consequence is practical. An overseas employer, a client paying an invoice from abroad, a family member sending money home, a pension paid from another country: every one of them needs your new sort code and account number directly, before the switch date rather than after. A payment that arrives at a closed account can bounce back through the correspondent chain, which takes days and loses money on two conversions. Our guide to receiving money from abroad covers what happens to a payment that goes wrong in transit.
If you are regularly paid from another country, this is also an argument for holding account details that are not tied to whichever bank you happen to be with. That is covered at the end.
The One Gap Worth Closing Before You Switch
Overseas credits sit outside the guarantee, so the fix is to stop your international payment details being tied to a bank account at all.
- Your own UK sort code and account number: independent of whichever bank you switch to, so a switch never breaks an inbound payment
- Local details in other currencies too: get paid in euros or dollars without an international transfer at either end
- Nothing to redirect: because the account does not close when your current account does
- Free to open while you decide: no fee to sign up, no subscription, no minimum balance
Overdrafts, Savings and Transaction History
An arranged overdraft does not transfer. You apply for one at the new bank as a separate credit decision, and there is no guarantee you get the same limit, so check before you switch if you rely on it. Savings accounts and ISAs are separate products and stay where they are unless you move them yourself.
Your statement and transaction history does not come across either. Download or export the old statements before the switch date, because once the account is closed getting them becomes a request rather than a download, and lenders routinely ask for three to six months of them.
Digital Wallets and Open Banking
Apple Pay, Google Pay and any card stored with a retailer all hold the old card number and need updating manually. Third party providers with open banking access to your data, which means budgeting apps, accounting software and anything that reads your transactions, lose that access and have to be re-authorised.
None of this is difficult and all of it is invisible until something fails. Twenty minutes with your card statement the week after the switch clears the lot.
Does Switching Banks Affect Your Credit Score in the UK?
Bank switching in the UK costs you one hard search, on the application for the new account rather than on the switch. It is visible to lenders and it lowers your score briefly. The switch itself does not add a second search. Experian's guidance is that opening a new bank account should only lower your score temporarily, but that doing it too often means it never has time to recover.
The Hard Search on the New Application
The search happens on the application, not on the switch, and it happens because a current account with an arranged overdraft is a credit product. An application for an account with no overdraft may only need a soft search, which is invisible to lenders and has no effect on your score at all.
Experian is clear that multiple credit applications can negatively affect your score regardless of whether they are successful, so a declined application costs you the same as an approved one. Apply once, to the account you actually want.
What the Old Account Leaves Behind
A closed account does not vanish from your file. It stays on your report with its history intact, which is usually helpful rather than harmful, because a long, well run account is evidence of stability. What you lose is the length of your relationship with that bank in their internal scoring, which matters if you later apply to them for a mortgage.
Nothing about the closure itself is a black mark. The service closes the account cleanly and reports it as closed, not as defaulted or withdrawn.
How Easy Is It to Change Banks in the UK Without Damaging Your File?
Easier than the folklore suggests. How easy is it to change banks in the UK comes down to one application and one search, and a single search a year is unremarkable to any lender. What does damage is the scattergun approach: three applications in a month leaves three searches whether or not any of them succeeded.
So the safe version of changing banks in the UK is to decide first and apply once. Use an eligibility checker where the bank offers one, because those run a soft search that nobody but you can see.
How Often Is Too Often
One switch a year is unremarkable. Three or four in twelve months, which is what chasing switch incentives looks like, reads to a lender as somebody opening accounts repeatedly, and that is a pattern rather than an event.
The rule of thumb worth following is simple: do not switch in the six months before a mortgage application. Outside that window the effect is small and temporary.
How Many Bank Accounts Can You Have in the UK?
How many bank accounts can you have in the UK? There is no legal limit. You can hold as many current accounts as banks are willing to approve, at as many different banks as you like. What limits people in practice is the credit search on each application, not any rule about the number you end up with.
Why People Keep More Than One
The common setups are a main account for salary and bills, a second for spending so a budget is visible at a glance, and a joint account for a household. It is also why plenty of people who change a bank account in the UK keep the old one open rather than switching at all, because a long running account is their oldest credit relationship and closing it throws that away.
Holding more than one is also insurance. An account frozen for a fraud check is a serious problem when it is your only one, and a minor inconvenience when it is not. Our ranking of the best banks in the UK prices what each of them charges once money crosses a border, which is the dimension most comparisons skip.
Switching Against Simply Opening Another
These are different actions and people confuse them. A switch closes the old account and moves everything. Opening a second account leaves the first untouched and moves nothing, so you keep the direct debits where they are and you keep the account history.
If what you want is a better account for one specific job, opening rather than switching is usually right, and it is the only option if the account you want does not accept switches. If what you want is out of a bank entirely, switch, because to change a bank account in the UK manually is to forfeit the guarantee entirely. Either way you will need the usual paperwork, which our guide to the documents needed to open a bank account in the UK sets out in full.
Can I Have More Than One Bank Account in the UK at Different Banks?
Yes, and it is the more sensible way to do it. Can I have more than one bank account in the UK at two separate banks is the version of the question worth asking, because splitting across institutions is what protects you when one of them freezes an account or has an outage.
Most banks cap how many of one product a single person can hold, and many restrict switch incentives to one per customer, so stacking accounts at a single bank runs into limits that spreading them does not. The practical ceiling is your own tolerance for admin, not a rule.
Choosing What to Switch To
Most advice on switching banks in the UK compares the cash incentive and the in-credit interest rate and stops there. The cost that outlives both is what the bank charges when money crosses a border, because that is a percentage of everything you send or receive rather than a one-off payment.
The Cost Nobody Compares
A switch bonus is a single payment. A margin on international payments is a recurring one, and on published UK bank pricing it ranges from about 0.4% to 3.55% depending on which bank you chose. On regular payments abroad that gap is worth several times any incentive, every year, and it never appears in a switching table.
Our comparison of what UK banks charge on international transfers sets the real numbers side by side, and the underlying reason the figures differ so much is the mid-market exchange rate and how far each bank sits from it. Two worked examples sit in our guides to the HSBC international transfer charges and the Starling international transfer limits, which are close to the two ends of that range.
Switch Incentives, Honestly
Cash incentives are real money and there is nothing wrong with taking one. Two caveats. They change constantly, so any list of them is out of date by the time you read it, and they usually require you to move a set number of direct debits and pay in a minimum amount, which is easy to fail by accident.
Take the incentive if the account is one you would have chosen anyway, and treat it as a discount on a decision rather than the reason to switch a current account in the UK at all. Choosing an account because of the incentive is how people end up switching again a year later, and that is the pattern the credit file notices.
The Setup That Avoids the Choice
There is a way to stop the international question depending on which bank you are with. A multi-currency account holds pounds alongside 40 other currencies, gives you local account details of your own, and converts at the mid-market rate with the fee published as a percentage starting from 0.24%. It is free to open, free to hold and carries no subscription.
What it means for switching specifically is that the details you give an overseas payer stop changing every time you move bank. The account details belong to you rather than to the bank you are currently with, so the one thing the switch guarantee does not cover stops being a risk. Full assessment in our Wise review.
What It Cannot Do
It is not a bank. Wise Payments Limited is an authorised electronic money institution under the Electronic Money Regulations 2011, so money is safeguarded rather than covered by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme, and Wise says so plainly. There is no overdraft, no lending and no branch.
So this sits alongside a current account rather than replacing the one you are switching to. The bank does sterling, the guarantee and the credit; the multi-currency account does everything that crosses a border.
Price the Transfer Before You Move Anything
If you are moving money across a border around the time of a switch, price it rather than accepting the first quote. The fee is usually the smaller half of the cost and the exchange rate carries the rest.
The Bottom Line
Switching bank accounts in the UK is seven working days, one form at the new bank, and a guarantee that refunds you if it goes wrong. How to switch banks in the UK has exactly one step you actually perform, and everything after it is the new bank's job. The risk is not the switch. The risk is the three categories that were never in it, and the one that costs real money is payments from overseas.
Before You Switch
List every payment that leaves by card rather than by direct debit. Download the last twelve months of statements, because a bank account switch in the UK does not bring them with you. Check whether you need the overdraft to come with you, because it will not. And tell anyone who pays you from another country your new details before the switch date.
The Week After
This is the whole of the work in changing bank accounts in the UK. Update the card subscriptions, re-add the card to Apple Pay or Google Pay, and re-authorise any budgeting or accounting app that reads your transactions. Then check the old account redirection is working by looking for anything that arrived late. Our guide to transferring money between UK accounts covers moving the balance itself, and if you are sending money out of the country afterwards, start with sending money abroad from the UK.
Switch the Bank, Keep the Account Details
The cleanest version of a switch is one where the details you have given to people abroad do not change at all.
- Independent of your bank: the account is not a current account, so a switch does not touch it
- Mid-market rate, published fees: from 0.24%, rather than a margin folded into the rate
- 40 currencies held together: convert when it suits you, not when a payment forces it
- Free to open and hold: nothing to lose by having it in place before the switch date
Frequently Asked Questions
How long does it take to switch bank accounts in the UK?
Seven working days. A current account switch in the UK runs to a fixed timetable set by the Current Account Switch Service, and it is the same at every one of the 50 plus participating banks and building societies. You pick the date yourself when you apply, it has to be at least seven working days ahead, and it cannot fall on a weekend or a bank holiday. More than 12 million people have used the service.
How do I switch banks in the UK?
How to switch banks in the UK, in one sentence: you apply at the bank you are moving to, not the one you are leaving. Give it your old account details and your chosen switch date, and it does everything else: moving direct debits and standing orders, transferring the balance, redirecting incoming payments and closing the old account. You do not contact your old bank at all, and you should not close the old account yourself first.
Is switching banks in the UK safe?
Every bank account switch in the UK made through the service is covered by the Current Account Switch Guarantee. If anything goes wrong, you are refunded any charges or interest incurred on either the old or the new account as a result of the error. Payments sent to the old account are redirected automatically, and Starling states that the redirection runs for three years. The guarantee is the reason bank switching in the UK is low risk in a way that closing and reopening manually is not.
What does not transfer when you switch bank accounts?
Three things catch people when they change a bank account in the UK. Recurring card payments, also called continuous payment authorities, do not move, because they are tied to your old debit card number rather than your account, so subscriptions and gym memberships need updating yourself. Credits from overseas are not included in the switch, so anyone paying you from abroad needs your new details directly. And arranged overdrafts, savings accounts, transaction history and open banking permissions all stay behind.
Do payments from abroad get redirected when I switch?
No, and it is the biggest single gap in account switching in the UK. first direct states plainly that credits from overseas will not be included in the switch. The redirection service covers domestic payments, so an international transfer sent to your old sort code and account number after the switch can be returned or delayed rather than forwarded. If you are paid from another country or receive money from family abroad, send them your new details before the switch date, not after.
Does switching banks affect your credit score in the UK?
Changing bank accounts in the UK costs one hard search, recorded when you apply for the new account. It is visible to lenders and dents your score briefly. Experian's guidance is that opening a new bank account should only lower your score temporarily, but that doing it too often leaves no time to recover. One switch is noise. Repeated switching for bonuses shows up as a pattern, so space them out if you are about to apply for a mortgage.
How many bank accounts can you have in the UK?
There is no legal limit. You can hold as many current accounts as banks will approve you for, at as many banks as you like, and plenty of people run two or three deliberately. What limits you in practice is that each application is a separate credit search, so opening several in a short period is what causes the damage rather than the number you end up holding.
Can I have more than one bank account in the UK at the same bank?
Usually yes. You can also switch a current account in the UK at one bank while holding a second account at another, because the two are unrelated. Most banks cap how many of the same product one person can hold, and some limit you to one of an account that pays a switch incentive or a high interest rate. It is worth checking before you apply, because a rejected application still leaves a search on your file. Holding accounts at two different banks is generally simpler than stacking them at one.
How easy is it to change banks in the UK?
Easier than almost anyone expects, which is why so few people do it. How to change banks in the UK is one form at the new bank, pick a date, and the rest is automatic and guaranteed. The genuine work is the twenty minutes afterwards spent updating the subscriptions that pay by card and telling anyone who pays you from abroad, because those are the two things the service does not handle.
Should I close my old account before switching?
No. A current account switch in the UK closes the old account for you on the switch date, and closing it yourself first breaks the process, because the service needs the old account open to read the direct debits and standing orders off it and to set up the redirection. Leave it alone, leave enough in it to cover anything still due, and let the switch do the closing. Every guide to how to change banks in the UK says the same thing for the same reason.
Sources
Every figure and rule in this guide comes from the switch service, the bank or the credit reference agency that published it. All links were checked on the date of writing.
- Current Account Switch Service: common questions
- Current Account Switch Service: the service and the guarantee
- first direct: switching bank accounts
- Lloyds Bank: switch your current account
- Starling Bank: switch your current account
- Experian: what affects your credit score
- Wise: how Wise Payments Ltd safeguards customer funds
Mohammad Humaid
Verified AuthorMo is the founder of MoneyTransferStore. As an expat who has experienced the challenges of sending money across borders himself, he set out to help others like him avoid hidden fees and unfair exchange rates on international transfers. With a background spanning fintech, payments, and Web3, Mo brings years of practical experience to building a platform focused on transparency and trust.
