Lloyds Bank is offering £175 to those who switch current account with the cash promised within three days of it being completed.
It is the only bank with a switching bonus as major banks ‘press pause’ on incentives.
The new offer is for new customers who switch their current account from another bank before 28 March, when the offer ends.
Existing Lloyds customers – for example those with mortgages or savings accounts – can also apply if their current account is with a different bank and they are switching it to Lloyds.
New deal: Lloyds Bank is offering £175 for customers who switch to a Club Lloyds account from their current account before 28 March 2024
The switch must be undertaken using the official Current Account Switching Service with applications available in branch, online or telephone.
It can take seven days for this process to complete, with the money arriving three days after this.
There is a £3 monthly fee to maintain a Club Lloyds account – or no fee if £2,000 or more is paid into the account each month.
Andrew Hagger, founder of MoneyComms, says: ‘Banks have pressed the switching incentive pause button.
‘There has been encouragement of serial switching as a quick way to make cash – and “taking the money and running” has largely killed this market for now.’
For much of last year, NatWest and HSBC were running £200 deals and they hooked in a record number of switchers.
More people than ever switched their current account to a new bank at the end of 2023, figures from the Current Account Switch Service suggest, with NatWest and HSBC hoovering up the lion’s share of switching customers between October and December 2023.
For large chunks of 2023, NatWest and HSBC were running £200 switching deals
James Blower, founder of Savings Guru, believes the absence of switching deals at the moment is merely down to timing.
He says: ‘There were three on offer, all which have just come to an end, and I think this is just the first of another wave that will come on.
‘These bonuses ebb and flow in line with when the larger banks want to push to attract more current accounts.’
What’s on offer?
To get the Club Lloyds deal you need to switch to a Club Lloyds account, a Club Lloyds Platinum account or a Club Lloyds Silver account.
Apart from the cash, customers switching to a Club Lloyds account will also get access to the Club Lloyds Monthly Saver, which pays a rate of 6.25 per cent and has a maximum monthly deposit of £400.
This is one of the top regular saver deals. If you were to deposit the maximum amount of £400 each month, you would get £150 in interest over its 12 month term.
Skipton Building Society and First Direct both have regular saver accounts which pay a rate of 7 per cent, but you can only deposit a maximum of £300 in Skipton’s account and £200 in First Direct’s account.
Savers who have received a switching offer since April 2020 for switching to any Lloyds Bank or Halifax current account will not be eligible for the Club Lloyds switching deal.
Customers earn 1.5pc monthly credit interest on balances up to £3,999.99 and 3pc between £4,000 and £5,000.
To qualify for this, accounts need to be set up with two direct debits each month.
The account also comes with a 0.2 per cent discount off the initial mortgage rate when a Lloyds Bank mortgage is agreed.