Tesco Bank Overwhelmed by Switch Requests After Announcing Closure of Current Accounts

Tesco Bank is temporarily suspending current account switching, after announcing last month that it will shutter all current accounts by 30 November.

The supermarket’s banking arm says it has been inundated with switch requests since the announcement broke. It’s asking customers who haven’t already requested to switch to hold off and admits that it’s had to reject some requests already received.

When customers request to move their current accounts to a new bank through the Current Account Switch Service (CASS), their old bank has seven days to complete the transfer. If the process isn’t finalised in that seven-day period, the switch may be left incomplete, impacting the customer’s ability to use their new account. 

Tesco Bank says that the high volume of switch requests it received in the aftermath of the closure announcement meant it was unable to complete some transfers within the required window and opted to decline some switch requests. It's notified those customers by text message and asked them to resubmit their switch requests once Tesco Bank can handle them. In the meantime, they can continue using their Tesco current account.

The supermarket said “only a very small proportion” of its 213,000 current account customers had been impacted by the rejections.

However, Tesco hasn’t confirmed a timescale for when it will re-open switching requests.

Customers can continue using their Tesco Bank current accounts until the service ends on 30 November 2021. However, they will lose some features, including the ability to deposit or withdraw cash at customer service desks, from 15 October. Customers have the option to move their current account to a new bank or close the account, after withdrawing its balance.

Tesco Bank decided to close its current account service after finding that just a fraction of customers were using it as a primary bank account, with most accounts being used as savings accounts, despite paying 0% interest, or showing little activity. The supermarket said will focus instead on products and services that “best meet the needs of Tesco shoppers.”