Bonanza! The 6 banks throwing more than £100 at anyone who switches to them - and what else you get
Being a new customer is great.
Not only do firms tend to reserve their best offers for new customers - think of your insurance, and how quickly your premium goes up after the first year - but some firms even offer tasty welcome bonuses.
Banks are no different, with a host of them now offering a welcome bonus when you switch over your bank account.
Best of all, those welcome bonuses come in the form of cold, hard cash, meaning you can give your bank balance a serious boost just by moving it!
Switching to Halifax
Halifax has just relaunched its switching bonus
Halifax has just relaunched its switching bonus (Photo: PA)
Just this week Halifax relaunched its switcher campaign, which means you can pocket a tasty £125 for moving over to one of its accounts before the 31st July.
This has always been a popular bank bribe, partly because it’s paid at the start of the switching process, rather than after you have been with your new bank for a couple of months.
There are three accounts to choose from, but arguably the best one is the Halifax Reward Account . With this account, you get £3 every month so long as pay in £750 or more, pay out at least two direct debits and stay in credit.
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In other words, even if you spend almost every penny you earn, this account will still reward you with £36 a year, on top of the £125 cashback you get for opening an account in the first place!
The account doesn’t pay interest on in-credit balances, while it has a £50 overdraft buffer in place as well.
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The TSB Classic Plus
Moving over to the TSB Classic Plus account via MoneySuperMarket can work out as a lucrative move.
It comes with a £130 switching bonus so long as you move before 14th July, while the account pays £5 cashback each month so long as you have two direct debits in place.
On top of that, make 20 purchases in the month on your debit card and you’ll get a further £5 cashback. So in the first year you could make a whopping £250 in cashback, plus earn 3% interest on balances of up to £1,500.
To earn interest you will need to pay in £500 each month, as well as sign up for internet banking and paperless correspondence.
HSBC Advance or Premier
There's a bonus for opening - and keeping - some HSBC accounts
There's a bonus for opening - and keeping - some HSBC accounts (Photo: Getty)
If you switch over to the HSBC Advance account before 23rd July you will get £150 cashback. If you keep hold of the account for a year, then you’ll get a further £50 as an anniversary present.
The account doesn’t pay any interest, but does come with a six-month fee-free and interest-free overdraft.
You’ll need to move over a couple of direct debits and pay in at least £1,750 a month to qualify.
The same bank bribe is in place for HSBC’s Premier account, though this is really only for the wealthy; you need to have savings or investments with HSBC worth £50,000 or an annual income in excess of £100,000 and either a mortgage, life insurance or protection policy with HSBC to qualify for the account.
Would you switch account just to get a welcome bonus?
Yes
No
First Direct 1st Account
First Direct’s 1st Account is one of the most popular around, winning a host of awards every single year.
Move over to First Direct and you’ll get a £100 welcome bonus. What’s more, if you decide to leave before holding the account for a year, you’ll get another £100 as a goodbye present.
Again there’s no interest paid on your balance, but you do enjoy a £250 interest-free overdraft.
There is no account fee for the first six months; after that it costs £10 a month, though you can avoid that by paying in £1,000 a month, maintaining an average monthly balance of at least £1,000 or by having another financial product with First Direct.
Co-operative Bank
Co-op Bank account holders can enjoy cashback via the Everyday Rewards scheme
Co-op Bank account holders can enjoy cashback via the Everyday Rewards scheme (Photo: PA Wire)
Move over to the Co-operative Bank and you’ll benefit from a £110 switching bonus. You’ll need to move over at least four direct debits.
There’s no interest, though the account does pay cashback in the form of its ‘Everyday Rewards’ scheme.
So long as you pay in £800 a month and stay in credit, you’ll then get £4 a month cashback.
Account holders can pocket a further £1.50 a month in cashback depending on how often they use their debit card.
M&S Bank
The M&S Bank account rewards you in the form of a gift card
The M&S Bank account rewards you in the form of a gift card
The M&S Bank account is a little different. When you switch over you get £125, but that’s in the form of a gift card for you to spend in your local store.
Then, for every month that you pay in at least £1,000 and have two direct debits in place, that gift card will be topped up by £5, for the first 12 months of having the account.
The account comes with a £500 overdraft, of which the first £100 is interest-free, while spending on the debit card in store will allow you to build up loyalty points which can be converted into discounts in M&S too.
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The Current Account Switch Service
Generally, to qualify for one of these bank bribes you will need to switch your account over using the Current Account Switch Service (CASS), which was launched back in 2013 as a way to improve the way we move banks.
The service basically handles the whole switch for you, and ensures that all of your payments and direct debits are moved over smoothly within seven working days.
More than 40 banks and building societies are signed up to the service now, covering 99% of bank accounts in the UK, while the service has handled a monster three million switches since launch.
Importantly, not only is it free to use, but using the service means that if anything does go wrong any missed payments will be covered by your bank.