Santander Switching Swizz

rabbitjuice

Hope you enjoyed leaving this comment and it made you feel cool

lyle1993

Do the direct debits have to come out first before you qualify for switch offer?

Apologise if this has been asked before 😊

Caddyman

I got caught out on the £200 switch offer to Santander because I didn’t scrutinise the list of qualifying direct debits properly. I set up my energy company direct debit and added my TV Licence direct debit and I waited for the money. It never arrived because Santander do not recognise TV Licence as a household direct debit. I was of course fuming with myself for not reading the small print carefully enough. I even phoned Santander to complain and was just brushed off with ‘You should have read the small print’. I’m cynical enough to think that they don’t include the TV Licence as a qualifying direct debit to catch people out on purpose. They make the rules.

danny13579

Caddyman

They make the rules.

They do, but there's no rule saying you can't try again. The offer is still open. You can use the Santander account you used on the original switch, no need to open a new one.

You then need to switch in another account. Set up your 2 direct debits from the list on the Santander account and move your £1,500 across again.

Caddyman

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82018508#Comment_82018508

Thanks for the advice, but since paying off the mortgage and a couple of other direct debits now also gone, I no longer have enough qualifying direct debits that I can move across. I only opened the account for free ATM withdrawals at Santander ATM's in Europe. I don't use the account for anything else.

lyle1993

I can’t for the life of me find the official thread for the santander switching offer. Has anyone been paid the incentive yet?

danny13579

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82020662#Comment_82020662

Here you go. It's a bit soon for the current offer which began in April, so people who requested switches when the offer started are only being assessed now, 60 days later. And it could be up to 30 days after that before they receive their incentive.

More likely people have been receiving their incentives from the previous offer which ran between November 2025 and March 2026.