Survey shows surprisingly high churn rate for bank accounts

RaboPlus' inaugural Financial Confidence survey has found 14% of those bank customers surveyed had opened accounts with other banks in the last 6 months, while 8% had closed bank accounts, suggesting a relatively high industry 'churn' rate. The banking churn rate was also higher than for building societies, fund managers, life insurers, general insurers and health insurers. This is the first industry-wide survey of 'churn' in bank accounts and signals that attempts by some banks to poach customers and to get other banks' customers to open multiple accounts with their banks are working. RaboPlus itself runs a campaign asking customers to make RaboPlus their 'significant other' bank, while KiwiBank and TSB have also been aggressive with term deposit and mortgage campaigns targeting customers at other banks. Meanwhile the full survey also asked about churn at other deposit taking and financial institutions, including:

1. Building societies and credit unions "“ 1% started with a new one while 1% closed accounts
2. Fund Managers "“ 4% started with a new one while 2% stopped dealing with one
3. Life Insurance "“ 5% took out a policy with a new one while 3% cancelled a policy with one
4. General Insurance (House, Car and Contents) "“ 5% took out a policy with a new one, while 3% cancelled a policy
5. Health Insurance "“ 4% took out a policy with a new one, while 3% had cancelled a policy