Some banks have offers where they pay you to switch to them. You often see these advertised and I am here today to show you how to do it, some general T&C's they ask for, and give my verdict on if they worth it.
I normally check for the latest banks offering these free cash bonuses from the Money Saving Expert website. They have a specific page showing the current deals on offer from all the banks.
For those that don't know banks often have these offers where they pay you to switch your service to them. They often have some requirements you need to hit such as having two direct debits attached to the account, a certain amount in savings in the account, and sometimes the account to be open for a period of time before the bonus gets paid across.
This may sound like a faff, but if you don't already know of the switch services offered by banks it is made super easy.
You literally click the button with your new bank, and hey presto, a week or so later everything is done. Any money left in your account is given to you in a cheque, no need to contact the companies whose direct debits you have linked with the account, the bank does it all.
A month or so ago I signed up to First Direct and their saving account which gave a 7% return. This seemed like an ace deal so I got all excited so got it all sorted without checking any offers available. Turns out First Direct had an offer for their new customers that would give them £175 bonus.
Once I realised this it was about 2 weeks after signing up and I was gutted thinking I had missed out.
Much to my surprise when I logged onto the app one day and saw a little promo button giving the offer to switch and get the bonus of £175.
All I had to was have 2 direct debits linked to the account and have £1000 moved into the account as well. I sold a few Premium Bonds to cover this money, knowing I could move them back later, and within less than a week of everything being in place the bonus was sent across.
£175 for not doing a lot at all.
This is third bank switch I have done over the past 2-3 years. I have been to Nationwide, Santander and now First Direct. Each time getting between £175-£200.
So my advice to you here is to take advantage of these offers when they turn up because the work for them is pretty minimal. And realistically they won't be about for ever, so you should take advantage whilst you can.
Have you made the effort on these in the past?
Any other suggestions on ways to take advantage on sign-up deals?
As we are talking about sign-up deals, I have to mention the Trading 212 deal.
Sign-up HERE and deposit as little as £1 and you will get FREE shares worth up to £100
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