New customers could pocket £150 for switching and an additional £25 in cashback in each of the three months after opening the account.
Here, Which? takes a closer look at Halifax's accounts, the £225 offer small print, plus how it compares to other switching incentives on the market right now.
What do the Halifax accounts offer?
The Halifax Reward Current Account offers customers the choice of £5 paid into your account, one cinema ticket valid at VUE or three digital magazines a month.
To qualify for the monthly reward, you’ll need to spend £500 on your debit card each month or keep £500 or above in your account for each day of the month.
The account comes with a £3 monthly fee but this is waived if you pay £1,500 or more into your account each month.
If you can avoid paying the £3 fee you could pocket £150 from the switch, £75 in additional cashback for the first three months, and £60 if you picked the £5 reward each month, netting you £285 in 12 months.
The Ultimate Reward Current Account is a packaged bank account that costs £17 a month and includes travel, car, mobile and home emergency cover.
You’ll also get all the same benefits offered with the Halifax Reward Current Account, meaning you could pocket £285 in 12 months, however, you will spend £204 on monthly fees which leaves you with a profit of £81.
Find out moreWhat's in the small print?
To qualify for the £150 you must switch to a new Reward Current Account or Ultimate Reward Account using the Current Account Switching Service.
You won’t qualify for the offer if:
You’ll be paid the £150 within 10 days of starting your switch.
To qualify for the additional £25 cashback each month, you’ll have to spend £750 each month on your new debit card between September and November. You’ll be paid the £25 cashback by the 20th of the following month.
Some transactions are excluded including debit card payments made to a credit card, gambling, transactions made in a foreign currency, money taken from a cash machine and account-to-account transfers.
Halifax said you must have started the switching process by 31 August to get the bonus.
Is Halifax a good current account provider?
Halifax got a customer satisfaction score of 75% in our latest survey of banking customers, 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 moreHow does the Halifax switching offer compare?
There are several switching offers on the market right now.
TSB - £200
TSB is offering new customers £125 to switch and £75 to stay when moving to a Spend and Save current account.
Both the Spend and Save account and the Spend and Save Plus allow you to earn cashback on your spending.
The basic version is free and you can up to £5 a month, up to the first six months, when you make 20 debit card payments each month.
The Plus version charges a £3 monthly fee, but allows you to earn £5 cashback every month with no six-month limit, when you make 20 debit transactions each month.
You can also put the money aside in up to five savings pots which earn 2.67% AER.
To get the additional £75 you must make at least five debit card payments each month, pay at least £500 into the account and have at least two direct debits between September 2023 and February 2024.
Find out more:First Direct- £175
First Direct – a Which? Recommended Provider – is offering a £175 bonus to new customers who move to its 1st Account.
The account offers access to a regular saver, which pays 7% AER for 12 months, and a £250 0% overdraft, which is subject to status.
To qualify for the incentive, you need to switch using the Current Account Switch Service, pay in at least £1,000 within three months of opening the account, and must not have been a HSBC current account holder on or after 1 January 2020.
The £175 bonus should take 28 days to land in your account once all of the eligibility criteria have been met.
Find out more:NatWest and Royal Bank of Scotland - £200
You can get a £200 bonus if you switch to either the NatWest or RBS Select, Reward, Premier Select or Premier Reward accounts – both providers' accounts work in the same way.
Select current accounts are fee-free, while Reward accounts come with a £2 monthly fee and added perks such as the ability to earn up to £5 a month in rewards to spend as you wish.
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 with NatWest or RBS.
Regardless of which account you choose, you'll need to open an account online or via the mobile app, switch using the Current Account Switch Service, deposit at least £1,250 and log into your mobile banking app within 60 days.
If you meet these conditions, the £200 will be paid within seven days.
You won’t be eligible for the offer if you've already taken advantage of a cash switcher offer from NatWest, Royal Bank of Scotland and/or Ulster Bank between 1 October 2017 and 13 February 2023.
Find out more:source https://www.which.co.uk/news/article/halifax-launches-225-switching-offer-how-does-it-compare-aKOdL9G8awXq