Switching bank accounts?

[kallis3]

It's 5p listing day tomorrow Chardonnay, and I believe the gallery photo's are free until the end of September, so a bit cheaper!

[drowning-mummy]

We changed accounts when we were exactly at the same stage as you (i.e. acknowledged a problem, could not pay that month, thought about IVA).
We both went into a major high street bank (who are not creditors) and opened up a Classic Plus account. We have to Visa Debit cards and a cheque book. I also opened up a Nationwide cash card account for my husband where his monthly allowance will be paid into (we kept getting bank charges with last bank because none of us knew what the other was doing with the joint account). Its not a debit card, so he cant ever go overdrawn, he will have to get used to dealing in cash again which will be a good thing. The Joint account will remain untouched and my allowance will go on a company pre-paid visa electron card (I recieve a small element of my salary tax free in an electron account).
We had no problems whatsoever doing this and it was all done and dusted within a week, long before we started the whole IVA process.
I cancelled all the DD with old bank and moved them to the new one, it was a bit of a hassle (4 hours on the phone and net) but we did have 13 to do. Now everything is in place and hopefully we can start to look forward. I must admit that I would struggle without a debit card as I am shift worker, so getting petrol at midnight will be so much easier, plus I spend a large amount of time out of the country.
HTH, feel free to ask any more questions.