Stop your bitching and get switching!
Eway to some extra cash in time for Christmas is to take a bribe! Banks are willing to pay you up to £200 to switch to them and, better still, they provide some of the best accounts out there.
I get more complaints about banks than any other sector apart from energy, yet people loyally stick with the perpetrators for years. So STOP BITCHING, START SWITCHING!
Don’t worry, it’s easy to do, according to the majority of those I’ve polled. As Amy tweeted: “It’s true what @MartinSLewis says, it’s easy to switch. Two new ones opened this evening with two new banks; couldn’t be simpler.”
Banks have fined-tuned the process so that now they close your old account, move direct debits and standing orders, and auto-forward payments made to your old account.
For full rundown see my mse.me/ topbanks guide. For speed here’s a quick look at some of the big payers. All credit score and most need you to switch two-to-four direct debits.
FREE £200 (£150 up front, £50 if you stay) + 5% fixed savings. Switchers to hsbc.co.uk ’s Advance account get £150 within 70 days. Register for online or mobile banking and after a year you’ll get another £50. Sixmonth 0% overdraft and 6% interest on up to £ 250 per month in fixed regular savings account. Customer service: As per my poll in August: 39% “great”, 18% “poor”. Who can get it? Like most bank accounts it requires you to pay in a set monthly sum. This effectively means paying your salary in – but you can withdraw it the next day if you choose. HSBC wants a relatively large £1,750 per month (equivalent to £26,300 pre-tax salary). FREE £ 150, up to £ 5.50/ mt h and strong service rating. Switchers to co-operativebank.co.uk get £150. Sign up to its Everyday Rewards scheme to get £4/mth, plus 5p per debit card use (up to £1.50/mth), so that’s maximum £216 in year one. Customer service: 2% “great”, 5% “poor”. Who can get it? There There’s s no minimum monthly pay-in for the free £150. To get the Everyday Rewards, you must pay in £800/mth (equivalent to £9,850 salary), get paperless statements, sign up to online banking and not bust your overdraft limit.
FREE £100, top service, 5% fixed savings & 0% overdraft. firstdirect.com has won every customer service poll I’ve done (and I’ve done a lot). Switchers get £100, a £250 0% overdraft and you can save up to £300/mth at 5%. Customer service: 91% “great”, 3% “poor”. Who can get it? If you can’t put in £1,000/ mth (equal to £13k pay) there’s a £10/mth fee, in which case it’s not worth it.
FREE £100 M&S, 5% fixed savings plus possible £10/mth. Switch to bank.marksandspencer.com and get a £100 M&S gift card, £100 0% overdraft and save up to £250 a month at 5%. Customer service: 65% “great”, 12% “poor”. Who can get it? No set pay-in. Yet each month of the first year you deposit £1,000, M&S adds £10/ mth to the gift card. Martin says: This is a common question. While mortgage rates are usually lower than loans, borrowing longer ups the cost too – 10 per cent over five years is cheaper than five per cent over 25 years. So dunking it on the mortgage for the rest of the term can be expensive. Adding it to the mortgage also means you “secure” the loan, so if you can’t repay they can take your house. That’s tougher for them to do with a normal loan. If you have a very cheap mortgage – sub-three per cent – you can add to it without fees. Or if you are in the process of remortgaging anyway, you could add the £12,000 to the mortgage but increase repayments (i.e. overpay) by what you’d have paid for the loan anyway. This way you clear the extra debt quickly rather than leaving it sitting for years accruing interest. If not, and you’ve a decent credit score, a cheap personal loan will likely win. For the best deals around have a look at mse.me/cheaploan. EmailSundayMirror@ moneysavingexpert. com or tweet @martinslewis with SunMirror