Changing current accounts: 10 tips for choosing the most suitable option

Dissatisfied with your bank, eager to close your old current account to open a new one, but at the same time lost in front of the jungle of offers from lenders: how to choose the most convenient solution for your finances?

A saver's needs vary according to various factors , such as age, profession, family composition, ability and willingness to use new technologies. Therefore there are no prêt-à-porter solutions, packaged in series and good for all seasons, in the field of personal finance management.

But to answer these questions, to find the current account with the best offer, to get an overview of the most advantageous offers, there is ConfrontaConti.it which helps savers who want to change their current account. Here are 10 practical tips to follow to choose the solution that best suits your needs:

1. Inquire . Never settle for the first offer, but evaluate more offers: now all banks have their own Internet site where they explain their current accounts in detail and also allow you to download the relevant information sheet, which you must read carefully to find out the conditions economic and contractual provisions of the bank.
2. Check costs . Check how much the annual current account maintenance fee is, as well as whether the debit card is included or not and whether ATM cash withdrawals have fees. And again: whether the domiciliation of utilities (bills, for example), the crediting of salaries or pensions, or the bank transfer have costs or not and if they include them, how much they amount to. As well as if there are discounts, promotions and freebies for new customers. If the account is presented as "zero fees", it is advisable to examine whether it is forever, or only for the first 12 months. If costs are foreseen from the second year, check whether or not there are promotions to reset them.
3. Validity of promotions . Discounts, cashback, gift vouchers, fuel vouchers, deposit accounts with guaranteed returns: these are some of the offers combined with a current account that banks put in place to attract new customers. Before opening an account, check how long these offers last and what constraints there are when the offer expires.
4. Priority to cost cutting . Reducing the fixed costs of managing a current account and the related commissions applied to the main transactions allows you to save up to 100 euros a year. Considering that the current account is used to manage monthly expenses, when choosing, it is good not to be attracted by the "items" of yields on time deposits or free deposits, which may even come to offer attractive interest rates.
5. Package or consumption services . With the first option, the costs of the current account do not depend on the number of operations performed, so much so that an unlimited number of operations can be carried out on the account, or there is a minimum number of free operations and for subsequent ones there is a cost. It is therefore a recommended option for those who use their account very frequently over the course of a year. With the second option, the costs of maintaining the account vary according to the number of transactions performed: the more you do, the more you spend.
6. Negative balance . The overrun of the balance, the so-called "going red", i.e. making one or more payments that exceed the availability of the sum in the account, involves very high commissions and being reported to the Central Credit Register of the Bank of Italy as "bad payers ”, even for a small sum of just 100 euros. Therefore, before opening a current account, it is always better to carefully read the contractual conditions of the overdraft.
7. Online checking accounts . With opening and management via the Internet or app, they are usually free of charge forever or for the first year, while from the second they have very low fees. Cheap, but also convenient because they save time as they no longer have to go to the branch for any operation and with the possibility of operating on the account 24 hours a day, 7 days a week (including holidays).
8. Debit, credit and prepaid cards . In the information sheet of a current account, read whether debit, credit or prepaid cards are included or not, whether or not they have an annual fee, whether they have a physical and virtual version and for the latter which wallets it is connected to. Check whether there are fees for cash withdrawals from other banks' ATMs and for payments made abroad. For prepaid cards, also pay attention to top-up costs.
9. Security . Home banking and mobile banking services must provide for two-factor authorization (in addition to your password, a code that arrives directly on the registered mobile phone is required), or the more modern ones make use of biometric recognition by means of a face, fingerprint, or voice.
10. Monitor contract terms . After opening the current account, the account holder must periodically check the contractual conditions and carefully read the communications that the bank sends. Often these documents and notices contain important contractual changes, or changes in the cost of fees and commissions. Not forgetting that for the banks, silence counts as consent.

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The article Switching a current account: 10 tips for choosing the most suitable option comes from Economic Scenarios .

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This is a machine translation of a post published on Scenari Economici at the URL https://scenarieconomici.it/cambiare-conto-corrente-10-consigli-per-scegliere-lopzione-piu-adatta/ on Thu, 18 May 2023 22:01:35 +0000.