The current account switching service, promising to move your account from one provider to another within seven days has gone live in the UK.
The opt in scheme involves 33 banks and building societies, account for 99% of providers, around the country.
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The scheme, undertaken by the UK’s Payments Council, aims to introduce customers to a "simpler world" of current account switching.
Adrian Kamellard, chief executive of the Payments Council, sad: "Today marks the beginning of a new era for competition and consumer choice in the current account market. Over the past two years multiple financial institutions have come together to design and implement this new, free and standardised service which will raise the bar internationally for retail banking.
"Compared with what the industry could offer before, the new current account switch service delivers a process in which consumers can now have confidence and trust, which is backed for the first time by the current account switch guarantee.
In order to build awareness of the service the Payments Council has begun a multi-million pound advertising campaign across TV, print, radio, online and social media.
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By GlobalDataKamellard added: "The new service also removes the barriers to switching that used to exist by making the whole process simple and hassle-free. Switching times will also be dramatically reduced to just seven working days and crucially we have put customers in control of their own switch date.
"We will watch with interest over the next few months to see the effects that come as a result of the new, simpler world of current account switching."
The service will remove the need for customers to liaise with their old bank or building society when they have made the decision to switch.
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