smallbusiness.co.uk: Helping your business think big

Produced in association with Bank of Scotland

In the UK, most people have a current account of some sort, and the reality is that most people don't spend a huge amount of time thinking about anything other than the balance in them. Usually, people stick with their current account provider for years and assuming mistakes aren't made, pay little attention to them beyond that.  Of course, a bank account is something we couldn't do without in most cases but few of us would ever consider switching.

To be specific, recent research* suggests that more than one in four of the population has only ever held a single current account throughout their lives. Two thirds of those who gave responses in the survey didn't know about the competitive current account interest rates that the major banks are now offering. They were also either unwilling or just not interested in switching their bank accounts. And yet, with the help of some basic research, and a willingness to switch to a high interest current account, they could be doing their current account balances a very big favour indeed.

There are, of course, certain elements of a bank account service that we take for granted when we open an account. These include getting access to our cash when it's convenient for us, regular statements of our balance, and the ability to pay bills by Direct Debit and standing order. And rightly, we also demand that the standard of service and professionalism from our bank's staff is of the highest quality and that we're able to conduct our financial business in a friendly and hassle-free environment.

You may well have other demands that you wish to make of you bank depending on your personal situation. But did you know that there are several services available which are designed to make your banking much more efficient and convenient?
For example, if you live in the countryside, of if you have work commitments during the week, you might have problems physically getting to your local bank branch. And if you're queue-phobic, there are other ways of doing your banking that don't involve you having to line up in branch.

It was precisely to avoid the need to visit a physical branch of a bank that led to the invention of online and telephone banking services. In general, these are available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week (including bank holidays), and are blessed with quick and easy registration processes that give you access to them. It enables you to see your account details, have a look at your balance, sort out your bills and get all your other banking stuff organised, without getting up from the sofa. Any time that you like.

Banking online is secure. Using password protection and electronic encryption, your account and personal information are only accessible by you, meaning you can be confident that your cash, and personal data are safe. Telephone banking now uses voice-recognition technology which makes it really easy to use and the perfect solution if you want to do very specific stuff, really quickly. Managing your current account has never been easier.

*Survey conducted by Moneysupermarket.com, May 2008.

There are currently no comments on this article