In olden times, it might have been a pain. Now most automatic payments hit a credit card, so you aggregate the account changes at that level.
Last time I flipped to get a 1/4 point off my mortgage. I think I had to redirect my utility account and change a few online payment portals for AMEX, etc. Took about 30 minutes, and saved me about $20k over the life of the mortgage.
Depends on what position you're in, and how you've previously organized your finances. If you still write checks, you have to leave the old account open with enough funds and wait for all of those to clear. If you have things pointing at your bank debit/credit card, you need to change those and wait for any outstanding charges to clear. If you have direct deposit of a paycheck, you'd need to change that. And any services hooked up to your bank account via the usual "tell us the number of pennies we just transferred in and back out of your account" need re-hooking.
* Always have recurring payments on a credit card, which you pay off monthly.
Bill payments and connected accounts should be minor.
The first three are paid from a dedicated account. The electric company pays me to do pay automatically, so I do. :)
A few tips to stay nimble and cover your bases during bank changes:
1) Don't use any bill payment services
2) Any automatic payments you do online, set them up for your credit card if you can (I'd recommend this anyway to take advantage of rewards)
3) Keep a detailed list of where your bank accounts details are stored for auto or manual deposits and withdrawals so when it comes time to change accounts, you have a good checklist to follow.
3) Think about setting up a permanent "home base" account that you can transfer money in and out of from other banks. The idea is that you'll always have this account, so it can be used to pay bills, write checks, day-to-day, etc. and you just funnel your direct deposits from other banks into this one.
It has always been a variation on this same theme.
The last time I changed banks was in 2010.
I had made a mistake and I overdrew my account by $5 or so. That was obviously my fault and I should have been on the hook for one overdraft fee. My bank, reordered my transactions and caused me to incur 5 overdraft fees.
When I called in to complain, they "waived" two of them, leaving me to pay $90 when I should have only had to pay $30.
That was it for me. I opened an account at a Credit Union and left about $5 in the bank account so they'd have to keep paying to send me statements.
That went on for over a year until the bank implemented a $2/mo convenience fee for paper statements. In three months, my account was drained and the bank closed it.
People need to be willing to pick up and leave a bank if the relationship is no longer advantageous.
From the bank's perspective, it's always business and never personal. That's how you have to act in return.
One just has to handle it like any other transitional period.
You open a new account with a new bank or credit union and start funding it. You watch your existing bank account for recurring or auto payments coming out and work to switch them over to the new bank account. You have to maintain some money in the old bank account and possibly keep it open for several months or a year.
Treat the old account as a temporary savings account with enough money to cover any checks or auto payments that might get drawn against it. After you are certain all auto payments have been transferred or you feel safe and confident then you close the account with the old bank.
I primarily use a credit union but I do have a checking account with a regional bank that I use strictly for auto payments, this makes it easy to make sure there's enough money in the account and to transition away in the future should the bank displease me.
It doesn't benefit me so I don't do it.
They day after payday, I sit down and determine which bills are due and I pay them electronically. It doesn't matter which bank account I use because I handle them individually, every payday.
I could switch banks today and my process wouldn't be interrupted at all.
The disadvantage is "An outside entity can remove an arbitrary amount of money from my account at any time, keep it for an indeterminate amount of time, then return it without penalty."
I could see have a charge automatically applied to a credit card (where you're able to dispute it, if necessary). I cannot imagine why anyone would ever want to set up direct withdrawals.
(Then again, they also don't have things like paper checks anymore.)
What do you mean? I don't see how one would even conceivably bring an account number from bank to bank, let alone why it would be desirable.
In my experience, it's actually quite easy to switch banks. No more than 30 minutes tops (open account, change credit card autopay).