First Direct is offering a free £175 post-Christmas cash boost with one switch | Personal Finance | Finance
First Direct is paying new customers £175 to move their current account. In addition to this, people also get access to its linked regular saver which pays seven percent interest on up to £300 a month.
UK bank account holders can get a free £175 using a simple bank account switch.
Many people will also get an ongoing zero percent overdraft up to £250.
To get the incentive, customers will need to move from their current bank using the free Current Account Switch Service (CASS).
They’ll need to pay in at least £1,000 within three months into their new First Direct account.
Once they’ve done this, the £175 will be paid in 28 days.
However, savers won’t be eligible for the switch money if they’ve previously had an account with First Direct before, such as a current account, credit card or mortgage.
People also can’t have opened a current account with sister bank HSBC since January 2020.
A total of 344,195 switches took place between July to September, according to the Current Account Switch Service (CASS).
This is up from the 344,195 switches that took place during the same time last year.
Switching takes seven days through CASS and this transfers over all their regular payments, including one’s salary and direct debits.
Their old account will also be shut down for them in the process.
First Direct is covered by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme, which offers people savings protection of up to £85,000.
This news comes as the best and worst banks based on the number of people switching were revealed in October this year. NatWest saw the most people switching to them (99,695) between July to September, followed by HSBC (25,769) and RBS (16,017).
On the other side of switching, Santander recorded the highest net losses (-32,560) shortly after Barclays (-21,598) and Halifax (-22,014). A total of 344,195 switches took place between July to September, according to the Current Account Switch Service (CASS).
