How long before you can switch current accounts

unclepotter

My question is that in February we switched to the Halifax from First Direct and received £100 for doing it.
Is there a time scale that you have to remain with a bank before you can switch again.
I'm thinking that if there wasn't then people would switch, take whatever reward was on offer and then move onto the next incentive that another bank is offering.

Anthorn

Usually such incentives are only available to those who have their income paid directly into the account. So the bank gambles that the account holder will never spend the incentive they received.. Depends on the TOS but usually there is a period during which the incentive will have to be paid back or deducted from a transferred balance if the account is closed. So read the TOS.

innovate

To date, I know of no current account that requires you to keep it open for a minimum amount of time, regardless of whether you used the switching service or not, or received a joining bonus or not. Most banks will have sufficient incentive for people to stay (e.g. the First Direct Regular Saver account), and if they don't have any incentive for staying (e.g. COOP), they shouldn't be surprised if people just leave again after a short while.

FireWyrm

...Also, Halifax say that you cant have their 'incentive' if you have switched, or have received a switch offer since December 2012. My guess is that this is similar across the industry. You may be able to play account tart for one round of the board and collect whatever incentive is going, but that's your lot for the next 'x' years.

greenorange

I was stupid during university and had an account with them that I kept overdraft, meaning I've paid overdraft fees for a long time. I managed to get the overdraft down and remove it, and now I want rid of the account.

Before I close it, I thought I'd get the £100, so I switched an account and received the £100 on 2nd May.

I've transferred £1k in and out of the account, so as far as I'm concerned, I've met their T&C.

I'll give it a few weeks and transfer the Halifax account to my main account resulting in its closure.

Hopefully they don't take their £100 back.

Archi_Bald

Why close a Halifax current account? If it is already a Reward, ok, else change it to a Reward. Set up 2 monthly paying DDs and cycle £750 a month through it, then collect your £5 each month.

Anthorn

innovate wrote: »

To date, I know of no current account that requires you to keep it open for a minimum amount of time, regardless of whether you used the switching service or not, or received a joining bonus or not. Most banks will have sufficient incentive for people to stay (e.g. the First Direct Regular Saver account), and if they don't have any incentive for staying (e.g. COOP), they shouldn't be surprised if people just leave again after a short while.

For example, The Co-operative Bank requires a credit of £800 within 31 days and will pay the £100 switching incentive into the account within 45 days of the date the switch is completed. So therefore we can see that the time an account has to be open in order to get the £100 incentive is a probable 52 days (45 days plus 7 days for the guaranteed switching time).

In the case of First Direct the information is ambiguous:

"open a 1st Account, then transfer your banking and salary/income of at least £1,000 per month to your 1st Account using the Current Account Switch Service within three months of your account opening and we’ll add £100 to your account. This offer is limited to one payment per customer or joint relationship."

Does that mean £1000 in the first 3 months or £1000 per month for 3 months?

Isn't the greatest incentive to stay with a bank a reliable bank account and great customer service and not a monetary incentive?

innovate

I would assume that everybody would want to stay until they got the bounty they opened the account for. There is, however, nothing in any T&Cs I have seen that says you must stay at least until they paid you the bonus.

Anthorn wrote: »

Isn't the greatest incentive to stay with a bank a reliable bank account and great customer service and not a monetary incentive?

Errrm....not entirely sure what a reliable bank account and great customer service are, but in my experience(*), UK current accounts all work roughly the same in terms of processing incoming and outgoing payments, which is the essence of a current account. If by customer service you mean what happens when you need to talk to someone - again, in my experience, they are all about the same. They all have their bad apples, and they all have people who have appropriate knowledge, and great people skills. You get FSCS protection with all of them, too, so your money is as safe as you want it to be.

So, the only things that differentiate one current account from another in reality are the joining incentives, the interest rate they pay, their overdraft terms, and any specials, such as preferential loan, mortgage or savings rates. There might also be packaged accounts that offer good value, depending on your requirements - - again, it is entirely entirely monetary.

Nothing airy-fairy about being reliable and having great customer service. We are talking about banks, after all, where everything is all about money.

(*) Being a member of the 20+ club, I think I can claim a fair amount of experience. As of now, the only current account I do not hold is a Barclays one.

YorkshireBoy

Anthorn wrote: »

Usually such incentives are only available to those who have their income paid directly into the account.

I've had just about every incentive going in recent years and have only once mandated my salary...and that was to First Direct because I knew when I joined them I'd be taking a £100 leaving present (in addition to the £100 joining incentive and, as later transpired, 3 x £50 refer-a-friend payments) and mandating my salary would increase my chances.


So I don't think it's "usually" the case at all.

YorkshireBoy

FireWyrm wrote: »

...Also, Halifax say that you cant have their 'incentive' if you have switched, or have received a switch offer since December 2012.

Further back than that...January 2012.

My guess is that this is similar across the industry. You may be able to play account tart for one round of the board and collect whatever incentive is going, but that's your lot for the next 'x' years.

Maybe things are changing (although I'm only aware of FD and Halifax with such conditions at the moment), but I've had 3 Halifax joining/switching incentives, 3 from Co-op, and 4 from Nationwide (in addition to various one-offs...because they've only had one offer, eg Barclays and NatWest several years ago).