No, you don’t. They always ask for the number but I’ve never typed it in, because I’m too lazy to do it. Never been a problem.
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Lloyd’s insisted on it in my switch from Virgin Money.
I was told the switch would likely fail without an active debit card and to at least check my balance at an atm with it.
This was after I told her I’d never ever used it as it was effectively a savings account. Debit card still stuck to letter it came in.
Never tried a CASS without the debit card number though tbf, and I’ve done about 10 now. Five this year and around 5 in 2017.
From my understanding they may check the debit card number as one of the verification/validation points when checking ID before doing the switch, but if everything else matches then they’ll let you through without.
As I said: never entered my debit card number during a switch, and the last switch I did (Monzo to Nationwide for the bribe) I didn’t even have my card by the time. Never had a problem.
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Switching accounts earns me free cash more than I will ever make from interest rates. You can switch an account without a debit card. I talked to someone at Starling and she said my additional accounts with Starling will remain open if I switch out my first one. I have one additional GBP account and an Euro account. These will remain attached to my debit card after the switch. I am waiting to see how it goes on Wednesday when Nationwide finalises the switch.
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That’s interesting. Being as you can’t have an overdraft on an additional account, I wonder if the additional becomes a ‘main’ if the original main is switched away, or if you’re left unable to have an overdraft.
Although I wouldn’t put it past a customer agent to have got that wrong.
Keep us posted.
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General advice with this is always to keep one long-standing account to demonstrate financial stability. That said, if you did that and also switched other accounts in and out every few months, your average account age would still be very low. As that’s a key metric in most credit scoring algorithms, it would likely make you appear to have fairly bad credit. Especially since a “closed” account stays on your report and continues to count towards this metric for 6 years after closure.
The switching game is all well and good, but it’s not worth doing if you are just about to apply for a mortgage, for example, as the losses (from a lower-profiling credit report, hence higher interest rates) are likely to far outweigh the few hundred-pounds gains.
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I don’t have an overdraft on the first one (I don’t need one and didn’t request for one) I just want to see how it works out. May be they will pull a plug on me and I will get back to them with the conversation I had with their customer assistant. I am not taking any major credit soon, so I am good.
I have accounts with Lloyds, Metro, Halifax and FD that I never switch out. Funny thing is last year three new accounts I played with never saw the light of being on my credit reports. 2 searches were removed without me asking and only Metro bank left their hard search and showed the account as closed.
Edit: these accounts were switched within less than a month of opening them.
Yes, @Seb, that’s very much my assessment. This practice can come back to bite you.
In addition, maybe it’s because, like a few here, I’ve been through the old “now which account shall I open now 
?” routine enough over time, that the switch for cash has lost its appeal. I’d just rather test out stuff I’ve not experienced before.
Mind you, if switching realised serious dough, I might be a tad more interested. I think I’ve pretty much got the assortment I like, each of which is distinctly different and has its place. If something new comes along, we’ll see…
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Then you’ve been doing it wrong! It’s best to keep dormant accounts and then cycle them for the cash, but leave end accounts open/open exclusively for switching in.
Just as a thought experiment, I was working out roughly how long someone on universal credit would have to earn £125 after benefits clawback.
Clawback is 63% (effective marginal rate)
So they’d need to earn approx £338 to get £125 in pocket.
Minimum wage for over 23s is £8.91, so it would take approx 38 hours to earn that money.
That is pretty serious money.
I think most claimants would be better off chasing referrals, switching bonuses, sign up offers and matched betting than actually working, purely from a cash in hand point of view.
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I obviously could be completely wrong here in my assumption, but I’m guessing most folks on Universal Credit haven’t got two bob to grind between their butt cheeks. Most are probably trying to focus on just living day to day. The idea for many I’m assuming, is that it would be too much effort to sit down and try and chase these referrals, or in the case of a switching bonus, won’t meet the minimum monthly pay in criteria nor would some I suspect pass the necessary credit checks either soft or hard. Not only that, a lot of them would need a computer and a decent internet connection to even seek out a lot of these deals and for some, that isn’t something they can afford.
One of the reasons I can’t/won’t switch to some of the accounts offering larger switching bonus’s, is that I would have to muck about pooling cash from other accounts to meet the minimum pay in criteria and I really can’t be bothered to do that. I get it for some, it’s a total way of life, after all, you read from people on this forum and others, some will literally chase after a few pence which in my view is ludicrous. Same applies for so called ‘high interest savings accounts’ that pay out £10 on £1k, some think that’s worth it. Personally, I don’t.
I’m not rubbishing what you say, I just don’t think it’s worth the effort sometimes. As I said in an earlier post, if I were to switch my RBS account to Nationwide, I’ve got to go through the ridiculous effort of having to set up and then transfer two direct debits even though I already have an account with Nationwide with six direct debits going out of it. It really isn’t worth my effort at the end of the day.
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Sorry, that’s not how I see it. Whenever I’ve tried an account and found it surplus to requirements, it’s been CASS’d simply to get rid of it - essential debris from the “try it out” philosophy. The only way I’d seek the bonus is if the next account I want to try happens to have a bonus and I’m ready to unload an account. That’s been rare.
An interesting strategy…….
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What about if in future after trying out a new bank, instead of closing the surplus accounts/CASSing them just to close them without any reward, you just simply keep them dormant (maybe have a SO for 1p or something a month so they aren’t closed due to inactivity), and then when a new sign up bonus comes around you’ve already got accounts in waiting to be switched away for some totally free money! Just an idea, although I can also understand the appeal of ‘keeping things tidy’ so to speak by closing anything you don’t need.
I was commenting in jest - I don’t think there is a right way! 
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Yeah, it was just a thought experiment. There are obvious reasons why people aren’t doing or can’t do these things. And those with least are going to be more risk averse. But switching bonuses are clearly very valuable for a large set of people - at the very least, the 4 million+ on universal credit
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Yes, I think that’s more important now that the number of untried accounts has been exhausted.
They’ll want CASS for incoming switches once they support Direct Debits.
Not sure your can be a recipient only of current accounts and not a donor.
If you join CASS to allow “proper” switching in the familiar 7 day fashion, then you have to support both joining and leaving customers.
It’s a CASS scheme rule, I believe.
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For those that have CASS to Santander under the current switch offer, check your account as some have received the £130 switch incentive today (me included 
)
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Mine landed today for account opened on 14 September.
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