Partial switching: moving payments without closing your old account

A partial switch moves some or all of the regular payments out of your old current account into a new one, while leaving the old account open. It is the option people look for when they want a new bank for day-to-day spending but want to keep the old account, perhaps for a specific purpose, or simply because they do not want to close it yet. Which? describes it as a way of switching current account without closing the existing account, and notes that you can move all of your payments or choose which ones are transferred¹.

The trade-off is protection. A partial switch sits outside the Current Account Switch Service guarantee that covers a full switch, so payments are not redirected, and there is no automatic redress if something goes wrong¹. It is also a rare choice: partial switching represents around 3.6% of overall current account switching numbers¹. For most people a full switch is simpler and safer, but a partial switch suits particular situations, and this page explains how it works, what it costs you in protection, and how to arrange one.

What a partial switch moves and what it leaves behind

A partial switch moves outgoing regular payments: Direct Debits and standing orders. You can ask for all of them to be transferred, or you can pick the ones you want moved and leave the rest going out of the old account¹. That is the whole point of the arrangement. Someone might move their household bills to a new account with a better app, for example, while leaving a standing order to savings or a loan repayment running from the old one.

What a partial switch does not do is everything else a full switch does. Your balance stays where it is. Incoming payments, such as your salary, a pension or benefits, are not redirected: anything paid into the old account continues to arrive there². And the old account is not closed, so it keeps its account number, its debit card if it has one, and its own terms and charges¹.

This makes a partial switch a tool for splitting your banking across two accounts, rather than a way of replacing one account with another. If what you actually want is a complete move, with the old account closed and everything redirected, the Current Account Switch Service does that automatically. If you want to run two accounts side by side, a partial switch, or simply opening a second account and moving payments yourself, is the route. The dedicated page on having more than one current account covers the reasons people do this.

Partial or full switch: how each one works

The full switch, run through the Current Account Switch Service (CASS), is the industry standard. You open the new account, give the new bank your old account and debit card details, and choose a completion date. The service then transfers your Direct Debits and standing orders, moves your balance, redirects incoming payments such as benefits or salaries, and closes your old account³. It takes seven working days⁴, and the guarantee behind it refunds any interest or charges if things go wrong⁴.

A partial switch uses the same banking machinery for the payments you nominate, but stops short of the rest. The old account is not closed¹, the balance is not swept across, and incoming payments are not redirected². Because the guarantee does not apply, the process is not restricted to the seven-day timescale and is not guaranteed in the way a full switch is¹.

One feature of the full switch worth knowing when comparing the two is the redirection window. Under a full switch, any payments accidentally made to your previous account are automatically directed to your new one, and the new bank arranges this for 36 months⁵. The Consumer Council for Northern Ireland describes the same arrangement: payments made to the previous account are automatically directed to the new one⁷. A partial switch gives you none of this. If an old employer or a forgotten payer sends money to the old account after a partial switch, it simply sits there, and it is up to you to notice and tell them. The page on payments to your old account after switching covers this in more detail.

Your old account stays open until you close it

With a full switch, the old account is closed as part of the process³. With a partial switch it is not closed automatically¹. It remains open and working, with its own balance, until you decide to close it, and closing it is a separate job: the page on how to close a bank account explains the steps.

Keeping the old account open has consequences worth weighing. The account keeps its own fees and charges, and if it is one that charges a monthly fee, or pays interest only when a certain amount is paid in each month, those conditions continue to apply. If the account has an overdraft, the overdraft stays with it. MoneyHelper notes that when switching with an overdraft, the new bank may agree an overdraft on the new account and send funds to the old bank to cover what you owe; if the new overdraft is smaller, or you cannot get one, you need to arrange to pay off the remainder separately before you can switch or close the old account³. The pages on overdrafts and switching while overdrawn cover this.

An open account with a small balance can also be a quiet drain if it charges fees, or an inconvenience if the bank later contacts you about inactivity. If your reason for a partial switch is temporary, it is worth deciding in advance what happens to the old account afterwards: whether it becomes your main account again, a secondary account for specific bills, or something to close once the new arrangement is settled.

Incoming payments and your balance: what you have to move yourself

The payments that arrive in your account are the ones a partial switch leaves entirely to you. Salary, pensions, tax credits and benefits, child maintenance, transfers from other people: none of these are redirected². Each payer has to be given the new account details separately, and each will need time to act on them. An employer's payroll department may take a pay cycle or two to update, so a common approach is to time the change between paydays.

Benefits and pensions deserve particular care. MoneyHelper's guidance for people choosing an account for Universal Credit payments notes that if you already have an existing bank account, you can ask your new provider to transfer your balance and all your incoming and outgoing payments, which is the full-switch route⁸. With a partial switch, by contrast, you must tell the Department for Work and Pensions, or whichever body pays you, yourself. A missed benefit payment is not just an inconvenience; it can leave bills unpaid at exactly the moment the account running them is in transition.

Your balance is the same story. Nothing is moved automatically, so you transfer what you need yourself, by bank transfer, leaving enough in the old account to cover the payments still going out of it. This is where partial switching needs the most bookkeeping: with two accounts both making payments, both need enough money in them on the right dates. StepChange, the debt charity, suggests as a general budgeting practice that you change your Direct Debits and standing orders to go out at the same time, soon after income arrives⁹, and that discipline matters more, not less, when payments are split across two accounts. The page on Direct Debits and standing orders explains how each type works and how to change them.

How long a partial switch takes

A full switch under CASS takes seven working days⁵, and the Consumer Council for Northern Ireland confirms the switch will be completed in seven working days⁷. A partial switch is different: it is not restricted to that seven-day timescale, and it is not guaranteed¹. Which?'s online banking guidance makes the same point from the other direction: a partial switch is still an automated process and should still be completed within seven working days, but you are not covered by the service guarantee and transactions will not be redirected².

In practice, that means the payment transfers themselves usually happen quickly, because they use the same systems as a full switch, but the overall result depends on the bank carrying out the work and on the payments you have nominated. If timing matters, for example if a large Direct Debit is due just after the switch, ask the new bank when each payment will start going out from the new account, and keep enough in the old account until you have confirmed the first payment has left the new one. The page on how long a bank switch takes covers the full-switch timetable in detail.

Where the Current Account Switch Guarantee does not apply

The Current Account Switch Guarantee is what makes a full switch low-risk. Under it, the new bank must refund you for any charges incurred as a result of a Direct Debit or standing order not having been successfully transferred to the new account⁵, and MoneyHelper summarises the position plainly: it takes seven working days and you will be refunded any interest or charges if things go wrong⁴.

None of that applies to a partial switch. It is not covered by the guarantee, so payments are not redirected and there is no redress if anything goes wrong¹. Which? states the practical consequence directly: you are not covered by the service guarantee, so you are not automatically refunded for any charges incurred as a result of a Direct Debit or standing order failing to transfer properly⁵.

This does not leave you with nothing. A partial switch or a manual switch simply falls outside the guarantee's scope: the payments you move across are not redirected automatically, and the seven working day timescale does not apply. That means more of the work, and the checking, sits with you: payments that go astray during a partial or manual switch are not put right under the guarantee's automatic process. If a regular payment does go wrong, the first step is to complain to the bank, and the Financial Ombudsman Service can then look at a complaint about a regular payment that went wrong¹⁰.

Payments a partial switch cannot move

A partial switch moves Direct Debits and standing orders, the payments you have instructed your bank to make regularly. It does not redirect incoming payments², and it does not move your balance. There are also payment types that need attention whatever kind of switch you do. Recurring card payments, where you have given a company your debit card number, are tied to the card, not the account, so they follow the card you use, and anyone who has given a company old card details needs to update them directly. The page on the Direct Debit Guarantee and cancelling recurring card payments explains the difference.

Payments made by bank transfer on an ad hoc basis, such as paying a friend or a one-off bill, simply go from whichever account you send them from, so nothing needs moving. The payments that cause problems after any switch are the ones people forget: a small annual subscription, a gym membership paid by card, a charity donation. With a full switch these are caught by the transfer process and the 36-month redirection⁵; with a partial switch they are only moved if you remembered to nominate them, and only redirected never.

A practical safeguard is to list every regular payment from the old account's statements before starting, and tick off each one as it is nominated, moved or deliberately left behind. The page on what happens to Direct Debits when you switch covers the mechanics.

Switching incentives and conditions

Banks compete for switchers with cash incentives and other offers, and those offers almost always come with conditions attached to a full switch. Which? gives a live example: Santander's Everyday offer excludes anyone who has previously received a switch incentive payment from Santander, or who held a Santander current account on or after 1 January 2026⁵. Conditions of this kind are standard across the market, and the page on how bank switching offers work explains the usual shape of them.

The relevance here is that a partial switch may not satisfy a switching offer's conditions at all. Offers typically require the old account to be closed by the switching service, along with minimum pay-ins and Direct Debit counts, and a partial switch closes nothing¹. Before arranging a partial switch with a particular bank in mind because of its offer, check the offer's terms: if it requires a full switch with the old account closed, a partial switch will not qualify. If an incentive was promised and not paid, the page on switch bonus not paid sets out what to do.

Choosing which payments to move

The decision at the heart of a partial switch is which payments go where. Which? confirms you can move all of them or choose which ones are transferred¹, so the choice is genuinely yours, but a sensible split usually follows what each account is for. Common arrangements include moving household bills and subscriptions to the new account while keeping loan or mortgage payments on the old one, or moving everything except one payment that has to stay, for example a Direct Debit tied to a condition of the old account.

Two rules of thumb reduce the risk. First, avoid splitting payments that depend on each other: if a bill is paid by Direct Debit from an account that no longer receives the income covering it, the payment fails. StepChange's budgeting advice, to set Direct Debits and standing orders to go out at the same time, soon after income arrives⁹, works best when each account's outgoing payments are matched to the income paid into that account. Second, keep a buffer in both accounts during the first month or two after the switch, when a payment may still leave from the old account because the transfer has not yet taken effect.

It is also worth checking whether the payments you leave behind carry any conditions. Some accounts require a minimum number of Direct Debits each month, or a minimum pay-in, to avoid a fee or earn interest, and moving most of your payments away can tip the old account below those thresholds. The page on current account fees and charges covers the kinds of conditions to look for.

How to arrange a partial switch

Arranging a partial switch starts the same way as any switch: open the new account first. The page on how to open a current account covers applications, documents and what to do if a bank refuses you. Once the new account is open, the process is short:

1. Ask the new bank for a partial switch, and say which Direct Debits and standing orders you want moved, or that you want all of them transferred¹.
2. Give the new bank the old account's details, and confirm the list of payments before anything is actioned.
3. Move your income yourself: give your employer, pension provider or benefits office the new account details, since incoming payments are not redirected².
4. Transfer the balance you need, leaving enough in the old account to cover the payments still going out of it.
5. Watch both accounts for the first two payment cycles, checking each expected payment leaves from the account you intended.

The legal footing for the process is the Payment Accounts Regulations. They require the receiving payment service provider, the new bank, to perform the switching service once it has your authorisation¹¹. The Regulations also allow for alternative switching schemes: the Payment Systems Regulator may designate one only if it is clearly in the interest of the consumer, imposes no additional burden on the consumer beyond the standard switching requirements, and completes switching within the same overall timeframe¹². The Regulator's own policy statement describes these designation criteria for alternative switching schemes¹³. For the consumer, the practical meaning is that whichever scheme a bank uses, the basic protections in the Regulations travel with it.

Where to get help

If a payment goes wrong during or after a partial switch, the first port of call is the bank that was supposed to move it. Complain in writing, keep the response, and if the bank does not resolve the matter within eight weeks or rejects the complaint, the Financial Ombudsman Service can look at it, including complaints about regular payments¹⁰. The ombudsman is free to use.

Separately from the switching process, the Direct Debit Guarantee continues to protect the Direct Debits themselves wherever they are paid from. The Financial Ombudsman Service explains that if the bank, or an organisation you are paying, makes a mistake, your bank must refund the payment to you¹⁰, and the Consumer Council for Northern Ireland adds that if a payment error is made by the payee company, or your bank or building society, you are entitled to a full and immediate refund of the amount paid¹⁴. Companies must also notify you in advance of any change to the amount, date or frequency of a Direct Debit¹⁴. These protections apply to the payment, not to the switch, so they survive a partial switch even though the Switch Guarantee does not.

For general help with banking choices, MoneyHelper offers free guidance on opening, switching and closing accounts³, and on choosing the right account in the first place⁴. The Consumer Council for Northern Ireland publishes equivalent guidance for consumers in Northern Ireland, including on choosing a current account⁷. If the reason for splitting payments is difficulty managing money or debt, StepChange offers free debt advice, including on structuring payments around the days income arrives⁹, and the wider guide to debt help covers the options.