Martin Lewis, the brains behind MoneySavingExpert.com, has flagged up a hot tip for Lloyds Bank customers - switch your current account and you could snag an extra £200. On his ITV1 and ITVX programme, The Martin Lewis Money Show, he pointed out that loads of customers don't budge from their bank for ages. That's why banks are now dangling cash carrots, around £150 to £200, to lure you into switching loyalty.
Fancy names on the high street like Santander, First Direct, Club Lloyds, NatWest, and Nationwide are making quite the splash with their tempting switching perks. But there's a bit of a snag with Lloyd's generous £200 offer as noted by Martin - if you're not dumping the equivalent of a £28,500 wage packet into your account, be prepared to cough up a £3 monthly fee.
Dishing out pointers for a hassle-free account changeover, Martin commented: "It is a good idea to do and it is so easy."He laid out the nitty-gritty plainly: "To switch, you need to use the bank's seven-day easy switching service which will close your old account for you, it will auto forward any payments to that account, it will move across any direct debits, and standing orders.", reports Yorkshire Live. The highest up front cash if you want the cash straight away is from Club Lloyds, it also gives you a year's Disney Plus. Many banks want you to do a minimum monthly payment... which is their way of effectively saying they want salary going in."
"So you convert it into salary. So with Natwest it's £1,250 a month which is equivalent to a £16,000 salary before tax, Lloyds is the one to watch. It's [a minimum of] £2,000 a month, which is equivalent to a nearly 30 grand a year salary, which not surprisingly will leave a few people out. If you've got less it charges you a monthly fee."