Divorce more popular than switching banks

Married couples are more likely to file for divorce than change their bank account, new figures suggests.

According to research conducted by internet bank smile, one in three (over 155,000) marriages ended in divorce in 2005, but just one per cent of married couples opted for a new current account provider.

While smile is aware that as bank it is not really going to be able to do much to lower the UK's divorce rate it has suggested that by offering couples the chance to move to a less-stressful form of banking, they may have a little bit more time to spend with each other.

David Newman, marketing director at smile, said: "Many people believe that switching their bank account is both pointless and time consuming but they couldn't be more wrong. Switching to smile is easy, our customers benefit from highly competitive products, excellent service and a knowledge that they can contribute to the UK's only ethical banking policy.

"Whilst it may be difficult for a bank to directly reduce divorce rates in the UK, internet banking with smile provides account holders more time to spend on the important things in life such as each other."