How To Switch Banks In 3 Easy Steps

I bank with Comerica; and I hate it.

The reason I started banking with them in the first place; is that they were the only branch on campus at my previous employer (BMC Software), which was a big plus.

But I've left BMC in 2003, and I'm still stuck with Comerica, their non-existing service and exorbitant fees.

Why?

Because switching banks is a hassle.

Most consumers have direct deposits, automatic withdrawals and online bill payees set up with their current bank.

Each one of the companies that deposits and withdraws from your account needs to be informed if you have new account information.

Calling around to get instructions and forms is the kind of task that always gets pushed down a to-do list. And, if you use your bank's online bill payment system, you could have 5 to 30 different payees, some with automatic payment schedules that need to be re-typed and moved over as well.

So naturally, when I came accross BankSwitcher; I just had to write about it.

Switching banks can be hard...

BankSwitcher was invented to make it much easier to go to a new bank.

Now, you can bank with the company that is offering the best products, rather than staying with a bank we don't like - just because it's an overwhelming task to move.

BankSwitcher looks at your banking activity to identify things you will need to do if you want to switch banks (e.g., change direct deposits and automatic payments). You progress through BankSwitcher in three steps:

1. Gather bank activity. BankSwitcher looks for items that will need to be changed when you switch banks, such as direct deposits and automatic payments.
2. Choose what to switch. You select the Billers and Depositors you want included in your Switching Checklist based on the items compiled in Step 1.
3. Print your Switching Checklist. Then, BankSwitcher generates a printable document (PDF format) with everything you need to change banks. You can use your Switching Checklist whenever you want.

BankSwitcher "...follow strict standards to protect all personal information submitted to us...":

• All data is transmitted using secure socket layer technology (SSL).
• Our network is highly secure, firewalled, and fully encrypted.
• Any information that we don't need to keep (e.g. bank login information, account numbers, etc.) is never written to disk and immediately erased from memory after use.

BankSwitcher empowers you to find a better bank, but switching is up to you. So if you do use it; please give us some feedback.

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• Make Checklists for Bank Switches with BankSwitcher [Money] [via Zemanta]