First Direct gives £175 to anyone with £1,000 in account | Personal Finance | Finance

First Direct is giving a free £175 cash boost to customers who make a simple switch.

The bank is offering the freebie to customers who switch to its 1st Account and make a deposit of £1,000 within 45 days.

Customers who move to a 1st Account will not only get a switching bonus, but will get a £250 zero percent overdraft, fee-free overseas spending and a linked seven percent AER fixed regular saving you can put between £25 and £300 per month in for one year.

So if you saved £300 every month for 12 months and qualify for the seven percent AER interest rate, you’ll earn around £136.50 in interest.

To get the £175 welcome bonus, you simply need to switch to First Direct using the Current Account Switch Service and pay a deposit of £1,000 into the account. You must also make five debit card payments and log onto digital banking.

All of this must be done within days of opening the account. You’ll then get the free £175 by the 20th of the following month if all of the criteria has been met.

The offer is not available to anyone who has opened an HSBC current account on or after January 1, 2018.

You must also be aged 18 and over, be a UK resident and have not been declared bankrupt or registered for an Individual Voluntary Agreement in the last six years.

If you don’t meet the qualifying criteria then several other banks and building societies are offering similar cash incentives at the moment, with many dishing out free rewards in time for Christmas.

Lloyds, Santander, Co-op, NatWest and Nationwide all have switching offers up for grabs right now with bonuses of up to £200.