Switching bonus

Jules_0404

I applied to switch our joint account to First Direct but have had 2nd thoughts as I've just remembered Nationwide give a £100 each savings bonus payout once a year. Could I cancel the switch and switch our sole accounts instead to get the bonus or have I now forfeitted that right. 

steven141

You can contact your existing bank or building society and block the transfer. You have to be quick though.

with regards to switching your sole accounts, you will both get the cashback offer if you apply for 2 sole accounts, the only thing is that if you have already applied for a new account there will be a credit search which won’t disappear until 1-2 years (but becomes less relevant after 3-6 months) and if you both apply again, it will do another credit search each. It may be advisable to keep the new account you just opened for a while as the new bank may not see you too favourably for opening and closing an account without using it at all.

You could always keep the switch going and open new account/s with Nationwide but again, this is likely to generate another credit search which is fine if you aren’t going to apply for anything credit based for the next 6 months. 

PRAISETHESUN

Regardless of what you end up doing, it's always better to do sole switches rather than joint switches when going for switching incentives. In the vast majority of cases (with the recent Nationwide incentives being the notable exception), banks will only pay out once per account/account holder. Sole switches will pay out each person once whilst joint accounts only pay out once total (ie. you're 2x better off doing sole switches). 

Nasqueron

If (and it's a big if) they do the same requirements as last couple of years, you have plenty of time to open a NW current account again and complete the steps to qualify