Santander hands customers £200 to ditch NatWest, Nationwide, Lloyds or HSBC | Personal Finance | Finance

Customers switching to high street bank Santander are being offered as much as £200 to ditch and switch their current account. Right now, there are three major banks offering cash incentives to lure customers to chop and change their bank.

Bank customers are notoriously stubborn, with many sticking with their bank for decades out of pure inertia despite not necessarily having access to the best rates or bonuses. But right now, First Direct, Nationwide and Santander are offering hard cash to get customers to switch their current bank, with many also offering high-interest linked savings accounts and cashback on top too.

Santander is offering £200 cash up front to switch, the best offer on the market right now. It also pays 1% cashback on household bills, up to a maximum of £10 a month, and access to a linked 6% interest rate savings account. Its Santander Edge account charges a £3 per month fee, but is more than made up for by the cashback.

Santander is also open to anyone to switch from any other big-name bank. Whether you’re a customer of NatWest, Nationwide, Lloyds, Halifax, HSBC, Barclays or any other big name, you will be eligible to switch. The only catch is, you can’t have held a Santander current account on January 1 2025, and you can’t have previously received a Santander switch payment.

There’s a £500 per month minimum pay-in and you must have two active direct debits on your account. You also need to be a UK resident and be over 18.

Santander will then pay the money within 60 to 90 days of the switch being completed.

It says: “Open a Santander Edge current account. Request a switch before we remove our offer. Make sure the details you give us are correct and match those at your old bank. Complete the switch within 60 days of your request, have at least 2 active selected household Direct Debits and pay in £1,500.”

There’s no set date for the offer to expire, but money expert Martin Lewis says that bank switch deals could be withdrawn at any time, so it’s best to get a move on and lock down a switch deal now.

Alternatively, both First Direct and Nationwide are also offering £175 to lure Santander customers, or those with other banks, into switching to them.