subject: How to keep au courant with current accounts [print this page] How to keep au courant with current accounts
Au courant means, literally, in the current but, more properly, it means fully cognizant, understanding or savvy particularly when it comes to current affairs.
It is precisely this sort of knowledge that most of us lack when it comes to current accounts.
Surveys have shown that those in the UK are more likely to change their football team than the their current account - note to foreigners: Brits love their football so this is shocking - and that the average Brit's relationship with the bank that provides their current account is longer than their longest romantic relationship.
To put it another way: we are extremely unlikely to move our current accounts.
The problem is that we don't believe that there is much to stay au courant about. We're more than happy to accept the existence of best buys when it comes to saving accounts or personal loans but current accounts seem less likely to provoke the same reaction.
Our vim and vigour when it comes to going out of our way to compare credit cards shows that we also have this view of the personal lending market.
Tell someone that it's not worth their while to compare personal loans and you'll likely get a look of contempt.
Yet a current account is a current account is a current account: we refuse to accept that there are differences.
This is partly because when you come to compare current accounts, most of the time, they focus on the interest rates on balances (negligible) and any benefits (again, usually poor).
This is despite the fact that the most important thing about a current account is more properly the overdraft fees.
When it comes to overdrafts there are definitely differences between banks. Some charge a per day fee, some have a 'buffer' or amount that you can go into the red without being charged and some charge extortionately high rates of interest when consumers step out of the black.
These overdraft rates are certainly worth taking a look at before signing up with any bank and taking a look at your own terms and conditions in comparison with other peoples' might be enough to induce you to move away from your current provider.
In addition, since no one moves their current account the banks have started to make it more obviously attractive.
Switching bonuses can be quite a money spinner, for example, offering amounts of up to a hundred pounds for those willing to move.
