Current accounts and those price increases always around the corner
The convenience of an account with a new bank is not eternal, but those who never change banks pay a hefty price
The opportunities are therefore certified, and a minimum of healthy comparison of offers on the market could make it possible to identify solutions with more favourable contractual conditions. Why then hesitate? More favourable account terms and more intuitive apps should make the steps more attractive, particularly for those managing modest capital. Instead, even today there are still many qualms, even if comforting signals are coming from the new generations - more inclined to change.
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With the right to portability, introduced in our legal system as of 2021, changing current accounts - with the associated shifting of direct debits and credits - is now a quick and free operation: by law, banks must carry it out within 12 working days. The procedure involves the automatic transfer of the balance and recurring services, such as utility bills, pension/wage credits and direct debits. The new bank has to manage everything: it communicates with the old one and updates third parties (e.g. paying agencies such as Inps and customers' employers). And in case of failure to meet the deadline, the old bank is obliged to pay compensation.
However, the convenience of an account with a new bank is not eternal. A current account is an open-ended contract and the initial conditions cannot be guaranteed forever. This is where the possibility that Article 118 of the Consolidated Banking Act reserves for banks comes into play, i.e. the right to change the contractual conditions unilaterally, but with a justified reason and 60 days' notice. An initial free account regime, for example, may thus evolve into variable charges.
The important thing is that there is a 'just cause' and not as has happened several times in the recent past with cost increases (in)justified by inflation and even earlier by falling interest rates. And with the subsequent rise in interest rates, initiated by the ECB in July 2022 following the upturn in inflation, paradoxically several banks, instead of restoring the pre-existing conditions, since the justification for the previous rise in interest rates no longer existed, raised costs again, justifying the increases with the rise in the cost of living. These are all episodes of reshuffling of account conditions, which have highlighted how such changes can radically alter the economic balance of the contract for inactive account holders or those with operations below certain thresholds. And not changing, just out of laziness, entails significant additional charges that accumulate over time.
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