Tesco Bank has reportedly declined requests from customers to switch banks after struggling with the number of transfer requests.

This comes after the supermarket said it would close all of its 213,000 current accounts by the end of November.

In July Tesco said it would send out letters to explain options for customers, including moving to a Tesco Bank savings account or to another provider using the Current Account Switching Service (CASS).

The supermarket told MoneySavingExpert that it was struggling after being inundated with requests.

But it did not give a timescale for when it will start processing all of the switch requests again.
Tesco Bank, which has offered current accounts since 2014, said only 12 per cent of these accounts had been used for more than “limited activity” and most were “being used for other purposes, such as a savings pot.”

Tesco stopped offering current accounts to new customers in December 2019.

"Since we announced our current accounts are closing, we’ve received a high demand for current account switches, leading to delays for some customers,” a spokesperson for Tesco Bank told the financial guide website. “We’re contacting all customers affected to apologise for this temporary issue."

A spokesperson for the Current Account Switch Service, which is owned and operated by Pay.uk, told MoneySavingExpert: "We are working closely with Tesco Bank as it seeks to resolve the issues some of its customers have had as they try to switch to new current accounts."

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