How to Switch Banks in 5 Easy Steps

How do you decide on a doctor or a mechanic? Do you pick the doctor or mechanic with the plushest waiting room and most expensive ad campaign? Or do you pick the doctor who has a mission to maximize your physical health and the mechanic who wants to keep your car running without unnecessary overcharges?

You don’t put up with a doctor who can’t make you better. You don’t stay with a mechanic who can’t fix your car or charges you for work your car doesn’t need.

Why should your bank be any different? Banks should be first concerned with you, not them.

Unfortunately, many news headlines show that this is often not the case. Some banks have been rightly criticized for putting profits before people.

Long before bad bank behavior made headlines, Zions Bank has lived by the motto: “We haven’t forgotten who keeps us in business.” A business philosophy that puts people first is a big reason Zions Bank is still around after nearly 150 years when thousands of other banks have closed shop.

You don’t need to settle for a subpar doctor, mechanic, or bank. But is switching banks worth it? Yes, changing banks is a bit of a hassle for many people, but if it can result in improving your financial situation, it is worth the effort.

It doesn’t have to be a stressful, complicated process to switch your accounts to Zions Bank. You can do it in five (relatively) easy steps.

Order a debit card and enroll in digital banking and online bill pay. You can go to branch to do this or even get started online.

This will allow you to use Bill Pay, send mobile payments to your friends and family, and sign up for eDocuments, a convenient way to store your bank statements.

At Zions Bank, you’ll find the Direct Deposit Request form on the Account Services tab within Online Banking.

After printing and filling out the form, bring it into your employer’s payroll department. Keep an eye on your Online Banking transactions and you will see when your direct deposit has linked to your Zions Bank account.

In all honesty, this is the part that is the biggest hassle. This is why some banks will give new customers hundreds of dollars to move over their accounts.

The next time you receive this type of offer in the mail, ask yourself these two questions:

• Aren’t they confident that they have the quality of products and services worth changing over for without paying you to move?
• Don’t they need to charge higher-than-normal fees to eventually recapture the money offered to move people over?

You’ll want to avoid incurring any fees related to minimum balance requirements as you stop using the account.

How do you know making the switch to Zions Bank is the right move?

Well, everyone’s experience is different, but the website WalletHub collects reviews of financial products and companies. While most of our competition gets 3.5 or 4 stars out of 5, Zions Bank gets a rating of 4.5 stars on average from nearly 2,000 people. Not bad, considering it takes a lot of effort for consumers to go out of their way to praise their bank.

Could it be that people who bank at Zions recognize they’ve found a great bank to go along with their great doctor and great mechanic? We hope so. And that’s why we recognize that, without satisfied clients, we would not be in business spanning three centuries.

Ready to make your move? Check out the Zions Bank Switch Kit, which offers a helpful, downloadable checklist of all five steps, contact information for our Customer Care Center, and links to open a Zions Bank checking account and enroll in online banking.

Don Milne is Financial Literacy manager for Zions Bank.