"Small animals also make crap" - this sentence also applies to choosing the right current account. Small fees that are incurred regularly are often greatly underestimated. With a current account, for example, you can quickly add up to more than 100 euros in fees per year. Nevertheless, this amount is often paid by consumers over many years - often because the effort for a change is avoided. With a little planning, changing accounts is not particularly complicated.
Essentially, 5 steps are necessary for this
- Open a new account
- Create an overview of incoming and outgoing payments
- Inform payment partners of the new bank details
- Delete standing orders in the old account and create a new one in the new one
- Cancel old account
Choose a cheap bank
A cheap bank does not charge any account management fees or fees for, for example, transfers. A Girocard and a credit card should also be included free of charge.
read more here which account might be best for you.
Open a new account
First, you should open a free checking account that suits you. Take a look at the comparison calculator:
Duration: About 60 minutes
Create an overview of incoming and outgoing payments
To get a good overview of your incoming and outgoing payments, look at your account statements for the last few months. Divide your account activity into three categories: direct debits, standing orders and your regular income. Also make sure that you don't forget less frequent payment transactions such as vehicle tax, property tax or insurance premiums.
Duration: 30 minutes
Inform payment partners of the new bank details
In the next step, share your new bank details with everyone who transfers or debits money to your account. Many online banks offer an online account switching service for this purpose. This automatically determines rental payments, payments to telephone providers and others. This speeds up account switching. Otherwise, an e-mail is often sufficient, which you can send once to all your payment partners.
Duration: 60 minutes
Delete standing orders in the old account and create a new one in the new one
You do not need to inform your payment partners about your standing orders. Transfer them to your new account and then delete them from your old one. That's it.
Duration: 30 minutes
Cancel old account
After you have arranged your payment transactions, wait another 2-3 months before you cancel your old account. In this way you can determine whether you have correctly transferred all standing orders and direct debits and whether payments are no longer being made or received from your old account.
Duration: 30 minutes
Conclusion
Opening a free checking account is a wise investment of time. Overall, arranging and sorting everything shouldn't take you more than 3-4 hours. On the other hand, there are annual savings of a hundred euros or more per year. In addition, a new checking account can also offer more functions. For example, a free credit card to be able to withdraw cash worldwide free of charge.
Read my checking account reviews!
To make it easier for you, I have created a few test reports and guides for this. Read my test reports on free checking accounts by clicking on the links below!
*Affiliate link: If you get to a provider via one of these links from my website, I may receive a commission. This does not result in any additional costs for you. ❤️ THANK YOU for using these links! ❤️
Disclaimer: This is well researched but non-binding information.
