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M&S Bank current accounts to close today

Emma Lunn
Written By:
Emma Lunn
Posted:
Updated:
31/08/2021

M&S Bank is closing down all its current accounts today, with customers having just hours left to switch banks.

M&S announced back in March that it was ditching current accounts and shutting 29 in-store bank branches in order to focus on credit cards, rewards, and a new digital payment option.

All the bank’s current accounts, including the M&S current account, M&S Premium current account, and M&S Premium current account with insurance, are affected by the move. Regular saver accounts linked to current accounts will also be closed.

M&S Bank current account customers have two options:

  • Switch current accounts using the Current Account Switch Service (CASS)
  • Wait for M&S Bank to close the account

The Current Account Switch Service

Switching current accounts using CASS is the most straightforward for M&S Bank customers. The switching service ensures your credit balance, as well as your direct debits, standing orders and incoming payments are moved over to your new account, within seven working days.

A notice on the M&S Bank website says customers must request a switch before 16:30 today for completion by 10 September 2021 to ensure the switch is successful.

However, it also says you can only close accounts with a nil balance. This means that if your account is overdrawn or in credit, you’ll need to either deposit or withdraw funds to ensure a zero balance.

Between April and June 2021 182,745 switches took place via CASS, an increase of 44,769 on the previous quarter. Over the course of the past year, from June 2020 to June 2021, a total of 646,569 switches were processed by the service.

Using CASS is the only way to receive switching incentives on offer from other banks. These incentives come and go and are often worth £100 to £140 in cash.

Closure of your M&S current account

If you don’t switch accounts by 16.30 today, your M&S Bank current account will automatically close, and the bank will send any remaining balance you may have by cheque.

All direct debits and standing orders will be cancelled – so you’ll need to set these up again yourself, or make alternative arrangements, so you don’t miss payments.

Once M&S Bank has closed your account, it will provide your transaction history (free of charge) covering a period of up to five years.

In most circumstances it will email this to customers within 10 working days of the account closing. If the bank doesn’t hold a valid email address on record, it will ask you to provide this or details of an alternative delivery method.

Your current account transaction history may be necessary if you plan to apply for a mortgage soon as the lender will want to carry out an affordability assessment to see what you spend your money on.

Tesco Bank is also pulling out of the current account market and will close all current accounts from 30 November 2021. However, it has been struggling to deal with switch requests since making the announcement earlier this month.