Bank bribes are back – The best bank switching bonuses and cashback offers

Unhappy with your bank? Don’t just moan, switch, and earn up to £200 in cash while you are at it. It’s free money, but act now, there’s no telling how long these offers will be around for.

If you’ve been with the same bank since school, university, or your first job, then you are missing out on hundreds of pounds worth of switching bonuses. In fact, unless you’ve switched in the past couple of years, you’re still likely to be missing out.

If you’re unhappy with your bank, then switch. But even if you are happy, it could still be worth switching to take advantage of special switching offers and deals. The best switching deals pay up to £200 switching bonus.

In this guide, we explain how bank switching works, and compare the latest bank switching deals.

Barclays

What’s the offer:

• £175

Key details

• Who’s eligible: New customers only (not available to existing Barclays account-holders)
• Account: Premier or regular current account (requires Blue Rewards sign up)
• Offer end date: 28th August (switch must be complete by then)
• Switched account must have 2 active direct debits

How to get the bonus

1. Open a Barclays current account or Premier bank
2. Subscribe to Barclays Blue Rewards (£5/month).
3. Complete a full Current Account switch from another bank in the app.
4. Pay £1,500 into the account within 30 days
5. Reward paid within 28 days of meeting the criteria

Chase

What’s the offer:

• £50 Amazon voucher

Key details

Only available to select existing Chase customers, check your email and Chase app for an invitation

How to get the offer:

1. Existing customers who’ve been invited should switch an account to Chase using the CASS
2. The switch must be complete by 10 August

Full details available on the Chase website

First Direct

What’s the offer:

• Up to £160 total:
  • £125 standard switch bonus
  • £35 extra via Topcashback

Key details

• Who’s eligible: New First Direct customers; no HSBC account opened since Jan 2019
• Account: 1st Account
• Payout timing: By the 20th of the month following criteria completion
• Offer end date: Not specified (may be withdrawn at any time)

How to get the bonus

1. Sign up via Topcashback (accept cookies), then open a 1st Account.
2. Complete a full switch (two Direct Debits or standing orders).
3. Within 45 days of account opening:
   • Pay in £1,000
   • Make 5 debit-card transactions
4. Claim via the First Direct switch page.

NatWest Reward Accounts

What’s the offer 

• £150 for switching into any Reward-tier account

Key details

• Who’s eligible: New & existing customers (must not have had any NatWest-group bonus)
• Account options:
  • Reward (£2/month fee, £5 monthly cashback)
  • Reward Silver, Reward Platinum, Premier Reward, Premier Reward Black
• Payout timing: Within 30 days of meeting requirements
• Offer end date: Not specified (may be withdrawn at any time)

How to get the bonus

1. Switch via the NatWest Reward account page.
2. Within 60 days of switch completion:
   • Pay in £1,250
   • Log in to the NatWest mobile app

Santander

What’s the offer:

• £180 standard switch bonus
• £21 extra via Topcashback^*

Key details

• Who’s eligible: New-to-Santander CASS switches; must not have held any Santander account on 01/01/2025 or received a Santander switch bonus before
• Accounts: Free Everyday Current Account, or any paid account (Edge, Edge Up, Private Current Account)
• Payout timing: Between 60 and 90 days after account opening and criteria met
• Offer end date: Not specified (subject to withdrawal at any time)

How to get the bonus

1. Sign up via Topcashback (accept all cookies), then choose your Santander account and begin your switch.
2. Complete a full switch using the Current Account Switch Service (CASS).
3. Within 60 days of account opening:
   • Pay in at least £1,500 (single or multiple payments)
   • Set up and maintain at least two active household Direct Debits from the eligible list
4. No further claim needed—bonus is paid automatically if all criteria are met.

^*Extra £21 paid by Topcashback once your Santander account is opened and criteria met.

Lloyds Bank

What’s the offer:

• £185 standard switch bonus

Key details

• Who’s eligible: New-to-Lloyds full CASS switches (including existing customers opening a new account); must not have received a bonus from Lloyds, Halifax or Bank of Scotland since April 2020
• Accounts: Club Lloyds or Lloyds Premier (both £5/month); you may downgrade after bonus pays
• Payout timing: Within 10 days of your switch completing
• Offer end date: Must start your switch by 31 July 2025

How to get the bonus

1. Go to the Lloyds switch offer page and select either Club Lloyds or Lloyds Premier account.
2. Complete a full switch using the Current Account Switch Service (CASS), transferring at least 3 Direct Debits as part of the switch.
3. No claim needed—once your switch finishes with the required Direct Debits, £185 is automatically paid into your new account within 10 days.

How does bank switching work?

Bank account switching is quick and easy. The current 7-day switch guarantee scheme started in 2013. Since then over 4 million have used the service to seamlessly switch their account to a new banking provider. That is still a drop in the ocean though compared to the estimated 70 million active account holders across the UK.

To switch your account, you simply open up a new bank account then use your new bank’s switching service. It will automatically move your money, direct debits, standing orders, and payees across to your new account before closing your old one.

Any payments such as your salary, or anything else are automatically shifted to your new account. If anything does go wrong and it shouldn’t, but if it does, you’ll be compensated for any losses under the switch guarantee scheme.

What to know before you switch bank account

Switching your bank account is easy, but there are a few things you need to know before you get started. As with most promotional offers, there are conditions that usually need to be met in order to enjoy the switching bonus.

Minimum pay-in requirements

Switching offers often contain a minimum pay-in clause. i.e. the amount you must pay into your account each month in order to be eligible for the bonus.

In some cases this can be as high as £1,750, or as low as £500. Usually it’s somewhere in between. Those paying their wages/salary directly into the account should be ok, but if you aren’t able to meet the minimum pay-in, don’t despair just yet.

There’s a nifty little trick, that allows you to pay in less but still meet the criteria.

Let’s say the minimum pay-in is £1000, but you can only have £750 coming in. You can withdraw or transfer £250 of it to another account, then pay it back in. Bingo, you’ve now hit the £1000 pay-in threshold. In many cases this even works between accounts within the same bank.

There are two things you need to be aware of with this trick though

1. Some banks might turndown your application if your salary isn’t enough to meet the minimum pay-in. In which case this trick won’t work
2. A month is a month is a month, except when it’s not. Whilst most banks will operate on a calendar month basis for accepting the minimum pay-in, other like Santander work by statement month. It’s important to double check to ensure you don’t fall foul of this.

Why is there a minimum pay-in anyway? It seems daft having a minimum pay-in when you can in theory just withdraw the money and then repay it into the account, but from the bank’s point of view it’s designed to make you use the account as your main account.

Direct debits

Similar to minimum pay-ins, to keep you using the account as your main current account, some banks require that the account you switch from has at least two active direct debits when you switch, in order to enjoy the perks.

However, we don’t recommend that you switch your main account just for incentives and bonus, but rather use a throwaway account, with a few cheap direct debits and use that for switching instead.

Money Saving Answers direct debit

To help we’ve created or one £1 direct debit you can use to help get your switching bonus. Click here to setup the direct debit.

It takes up to 4 days to show on your account. The amount is for £1, and recurs monthly but you can cancel at any time. See our Money Saving Answers direct debit page for more details.

Minimum card payments

Just like minimum balance requirements, sometimes (although very rarely), there might also be a minimum monthly debit card spend. Again there is a trick to this, where you can use your debit card to top up your balance in another account, for example Revolut, or PayPal, then withdraw that money back to your account.

Closing your old account

To get the best perks, you have to use the full switching service. That means that your old account will automatically be closed. Be careful, as there is a partial switching service, that leaves the old account open, but bonus aren’t usually paid when using this service. To get the most out of switching bonus, it’s usually a good idea to have some ‘throw away’ accounts open that you can use to switch, rather than constantly switching your main account.

Some basic bank accounts are perfect for this. Particularly those with Barclays and Nationwide. These are free to open, and don’t require any credit checks. See our guide on basic bank accounts for more information.

Overdrafts

The headline incentives can be tempting, but if you are regularly overdrawn you should focus on the account with the lowest overdraft cost. Overdraft interest and fees, will almost always trump the headline cash incentive for switching.

You must pass a mild credit check

If applying for or switching your current account, the new bank (in most cases) will perform a mild credit check. This shouldn’t be as strict a check as when applying for a credit card, loan, or mortgage, but it will leave a search on your credit history. It’s something to bear in mind, especially if you are thinking about applying for a big ticket financial item in the next few months, as multiple credit checks in a short period of time, can harm your chances of obtaining credit in the future.

Keeping track of your switches

If like us you’re a serial switcher, it pays to have system for tracking your switching offers and ensuring your meet payment deadlines and other criteria. That’s where Switch Tracker comes in.

Developed by a fellow Money Saving enthusiast and serial switcher, Switch Tracker allows you to keep track of all your bank switches, and the criteria for receiving the bonus. It’s completely free, and doesn’t even require registration. It’s now our go-to app for managing bank switches.

Digital bank accounts and other free money UK offers

As the competition for customers grows a number of digital banks are offering incentives to join them. The good news is you don’t have to switch to take advantage of these offers and there are not restrictions in terms of minimum pay ins and direct debits. The less good news is that the rewards aren’t nearly as high as the traditional bank offers.

That being said, they free and easy to open, so there’s nothing to lose, and as some of these use the Switching service, they can be worth keeping open just to use for switches to bonus paying accounts in the future.

Starling Bank

Starling is a Money Saving Answers favourite and is the most mature of the three main digital banks. Some may prefer the flashy advertising, outspoken nature of the Monzo account, but Starling offers greater depth of service, a more well rounded account. Unfortunately though, it doesn’t participate in welcome bonuses, or incentives. See out long term Starling Bank account review for more.

>> Open a starling bank account here

Monzo – £10 sign up bonus

In terms of brand image, Monzo is the most popular digital bank in the UK. Traditionally it’s shied away from special offers and bonus to attract customers, but has recently changed that tact and is now offering a £10 bonus to new account holders. To get the bonus, you just need to sign up via our link here, and make one card purchase within 30 days of opening your account. Easy peasy. You can then decide whether you want to stick with the account, or use it as a throwaway account to switch to another.

See our free money offers page for a full list of quick and easy offers and bonuses.