Switching for bonuses - can it last forever?
Flatliner27
Posts: 10 Forumite
Hi everyone,
This time 13 months ago I'd been with the same bank my whole life getting 0.005% interest on my money completely oblivious to other options...
But now I'm all about switching when my deal ends to maximise returns. I've just switched from Nationwide and their 5% interest + £100 reccomended by a friend bonus + £100 switch bonus from last year over to HSBC for the £150 + £50 deal which ended in June 2018...
Just wondering though, has anyone reached a point where you've been a previous customer at so many different banks that you no longer get the perks for switching?
Terms seem to vary from "not available to customers having held an account in the last 3 years" to "brand new customers only" (having NEVER held an account!) and I'm thinking the latter will become more prevalent as time goes on...
Haven't found anything elsewhere in the forums and curious to hear your thoughts, are my days switching current account annually for attractive bonuses numbered? Or will they at least hit a slow-down once I've been a customer of every bank?
Cheers
This time 13 months ago I'd been with the same bank my whole life getting 0.005% interest on my money completely oblivious to other options...
But now I'm all about switching when my deal ends to maximise returns. I've just switched from Nationwide and their 5% interest + £100 reccomended by a friend bonus + £100 switch bonus from last year over to HSBC for the £150 + £50 deal which ended in June 2018...
Just wondering though, has anyone reached a point where you've been a previous customer at so many different banks that you no longer get the perks for switching?
Terms seem to vary from "not available to customers having held an account in the last 3 years" to "brand new customers only" (having NEVER held an account!) and I'm thinking the latter will become more prevalent as time goes on...
Haven't found anything elsewhere in the forums and curious to hear your thoughts, are my days switching current account annually for attractive bonuses numbered? Or will they at least hit a slow-down once I've been a customer of every bank?
Cheers
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Comments
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It certainly gets more difficult. As you say, some banks only give incentives to customers once ever. For the banks, they need to weigh up the pros and cons of this as it might be thought useful to restrict incentives to customers that are most likely to stay with them for the long term, but on the other hand so few customers switch banks that excluding a group that definitely do might not produce the best results.
Personally I prefer an ongoing benefit to a switching payment.0 -
If you only started 13 months ago you were late to the party! There were, in the past, good switching offers at nearly all banks, but there are relatively few now. Those of us who started, say, 4 years ago, have probably had several times the monetary benefit you've been able to claim. Especially couples who have both switched, often via referrals.
And there's a partial answer to your question. Switching offers come and go, but many have gone and so the golden age of switching offers is, possibly, over.
But whether they'll come back in a different guise - who can say? And whether the banks will disqualify previous switchers - who can say?
There is no way to predict these things and so there's really not much point in speculating.0 -
There's a bit of a lull going on at the moment. But yes, if you've used up most of the previous switch offers, your options are naturally going to be limited. Thing is we don't know who or when any institution is going to be offer something. They really do come out of the blue. Take B's £250 offer, for example. That was very welcome. Then, immediately after, we had Natwest offer £125. Then after than Barclays were offering £132 (net profit for a year). But nothing has really taken their place (discounting First Direct/HSBC/Halifax.. who seem to keep rotating it... with FD making it less lucrative recently).Personally I prefer an ongoing benefit to a switching payment.
I do too, sort of. Well perhaps a bit of both. If a bank trickle the bonus to me, and keep it up after 12 months, I'm more likely to stay (although ones that offer a bonus and ongoing rewards are even better). That's what I found strange about the bonuses from B/Natwest and such; they give you cash for signing up, but then there's very little incentive to stay with them. First Direct have a 5% regular saver. M&S have that and add £5 on to the gift card each month. Nationwide have a regular saver and 5% interest on their current account. Co-Op/Halifax/Barclays offer rewards money, per month. These help retain custom. Perhaps some banks still rely on the old "can't be bothered to switch" mentality.0 -
Thanks for your insight, some really interesting responses here. It does feel like the switching hype is tapering off since the scheme was originally introduced in 13/14 but given that still only 3% of personal account holders switch every year I reckon there is hope for a revival in these deals... I wonder how many TSB customers are first-time switchers after the recent app meltdowns?
Think I agree with your preference of ongoing benefits in the same account, wife definitely does (she's always skeptical about switching accounts to make a few quid, but goes along with it) but it's about the optimal return for me right now and happy to jump through hoops to max that out.
Caught on the radio this morning that the FCA are going after platforms charging exit fees now so will be watching the one closely, especially in light of one of my recent posts (which I'm not allowed to hyperlink yet
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I was thinking back the other day and wondering how much I had made playing the "switching game" over the years, it's definitely in the thousands (as a couple) it's been very lucrative over the years but I'm on my last switch at present (M&S). It's been fun but as others have suggested I think the best days are behind us.0
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I would not be at all surprised to see TSB offering an incentive to join them once they get everything sorted out0
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I would not be at all surprised to see TSB offering an incentive to join them once they get everything sorted out
They may well do. They've offered switching incentives in the past...
https://www.tsb.co.uk/cashback-money-supermarket-termsandconditions.pdf
(Please note this is an old offer that is no longer valid. I included it to show that TSB have previously offered good switching incentives.)0 -
Flatliner27 wrote: »Caught on the radio this morning that the FCA are going after platforms charging exit fees now so will be watching the one closely, especially in light of one of my recent posts (which I'm not allowed to hyperlink yet)
Hmmm, I fear that journalists do like to overplay the truth somewhat. The FCA have published an interim report, one point of which was around exit fees. What they said was this:1.43 Alongside supporting the industry initiative, we are also considering the following measures to reduce switching costs:
• banning exit fees
https://www.fca.org.uk/publication/market-studies/ms17-1-2.pdf
The bolding is my emphasis, but it is worth being cautious. This may well happen, but it is not guaranteed, and industry representations may lead to the FCA changing their position.
Personally, I would support such action, but it may not happen, and it may result in other charges being introduced which are detrimental to customers.0
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