Halifax launches £175 switching bonus – should you get a new bank account?

Halifax has introduced a switching bonus for its Reward and Ultimate Reward current accounts for new and existing customers.

You could pocket £175 for switching – and that, combined with the accounts' potential £5 monthly cash bonus, means you could earn up to £235 in the first year. However, you'll have to weigh this up against the monthly fees.

Here, Which? takes a closer look at the new switching offer, and compares it to other deals on the market right now to help you work out if it’s worth switching.

Which Halifax accounts are included in the offer?

The bonus is available on the Halifax Reward Current Account or Ultimate Reward Current Account. 

If you're an existing Halifax customer with its fee-free current account, you can also benefit from the bonus if you switch to an eligible current account. However, you’ll still need to have a secondary bank account with another provider that you can switch away from, and you can't have received a cashback switching offer from Halifax since April 2020.

Here’s the details of the two accounts:

Halifax Reward Current Account

This current account gets you ‘rewarded for everyday banking’ according to Halifax.

Customers are charged £3 per month to maintain the account. However, you won't be charged this if you pay in £1,500 or more each month.

Ultimate Reward Current Account

Halifax describes this account as its ‘packaged bank account’, and it includes worldwide multi-trip family travel insurance, AA breakdown family cover, mobile phone insurance and home emergency cover.

There’s a £17 monthly fee to maintain the account, and this cannot be waived no matter how much you pay into it each month.

Find out more: 

What's in the small print?

Both accounts in the switching offer include either £5 cash each month or a lifestyle benefit, such as cinema tickets, magazine downloads or movie streaming. You must choose which option you'd like in advance, and your choice is fixed for a year.

The accounts also include Cashback Extras, which allows you to earn money back when shopping with selected retailers.

But you're not eligible for the offer if you:

switch to any account other than a Reward Current Account or Ultimate Reward Current Account

change your existing account to a Reward Current Account or Ultimate Reward Current Account, but you do not move your account from another bank using the CASS before the deadline

received a switching offer from Halifax since April 2020 for switching to a Reward Current Account or Ultimate Reward Current Account

are switching to a joint account, and one of the parties to the joint account has already received a switching offer since April 2020

are an employee of Lloyds Banking Group, or if an employee is named on any bank account held in joint names.

If you successfully make the switch, you’ll receive the £175 bonus within three days of the move being completed. 

Find out more: 

When does the deal end?

You must have started the switching process by 3 April 2023 to get the bonus – the switch itself can be completed at a later date. 

That being said, the terms and conditions state the offer is subject to change and can be withdrawn without notice at any time, so if you like the look of it, it may be better to act sooner rather than later.

Is Halifax a good provider?

Halifax got a customer satisfaction score of 75% in our latest survey of the best and worst banks, putting it in 10th place out of 21 providers we covered. 

Customers rated it highly for its online banking service and fairly highly for its online banking app. It received a middling score for its telephone banking service and call-based customer service.

Find out more: 

Other switching bonuses available now

There aren't a huge number of switching incentives on offer at the moment – but other providers are offering similar amounts to Halifax if you open their current accounts.

NatWest and Royal Bank of Scotland £200 bonus + rewards

You can get a £200 bonus if you switch to either the NatWest or RBS Select, Reward, Premier Select or Premier Reward accounts – each provider's accounts work in the same way.

Select current accounts are fee-free, while Reward accounts come with a monthly fee and added perks.

You can earn £4 a month back in rewards for two or more direct debits, providing they are at least £2 each. And you can earn an additional £1 a month back in rewards when you log into its mobile app. That adds up to £5 a month or £60 a year back in rewards to spend how you wish.

You can also earn from 1% in rewards that you can redeem as cash back, gift cards or e-codes when you spend with retail partners.

There's a £2 monthly fee, and you have to pay at least £1,250 to the account every month. You aren’t eligible for the bonus if you’ve had any bonuses from NatWest, RBS or Ulster Bank since October 2017.

Premier bank accounts are for those who either earn at least £100,000 a year, have a mortgage of at least £500,000 with NatWest or RBS, or have at least £100,000 in savings and investments saved with NatWest or RBS.

Regardless of which account you choose, you'll need to deposit at least £1,250 and log into your mobile banking app within 60 days to get the £200.

First Direct £175 + £250 0% overdraft

There’s no monthly pay-in minimum to earn the bonus or hold the account, but you do have to open the account online or in-app, switch in using CASS, and pay in at least £1,000 within three months of opening the account. The £175 should take 28 days to land in your account once all of the eligibility criteria has been met.

The bonus is for new First Direct customers only – so you can't have had an account with First Direct before (including a current account, credit card or mortgage), and you can't have opened a current account with its sister bank HSBC since January 2020.

Find out more: 

source https://www.which.co.uk/news/article/halifax-launches-175-switching-bonus-aI7xL6d1Iphy