I've had ~£5 from Natwest rewards .. in total but that's because I don't tend to shop at the places they are operating with.
I wouldn't switch to Santander personally ... know several people who have had all sorts of issues with them with fraudulent activities on their accounts being poorly handled whereas when my debit card was cloned I could barely fault Natwests handling of it.
Halifax is a crap bank - treated me like crap and I would never trust them with my money again.
I cancelled my CC with them last month, I wasn't prepared to pay for the increase in the annual fee as the increase negated the benefits I was getting. I ended up taking out a JL partnership card as I do a bit of Shopping in JL/Waitrose anyway.Funny you should say that, i've still got a Santander CC and noticed a dodgy Chinese fraudster had put a charge on my account. Rang them up and the advisor I spoke to couldn't have been any more of a ****.
The whole experience has made me cancel that card, and just use another for monthly expenses.
The thing I do Mrk is use old dormant second accounts (open one if you don't have any!) then just use the switch service for the £100+ incentive, you don't actually have to use the new account
When I cba to get around to it I'm going to do the same with 1st Direct, and then leave after a few months just to get both amounts![]()
halifax is better and has cheaper overdraft fees, take the free money and switch.
Actually, that depends.
Halifax charge an astronomical daily fee for being overdrawn.
Clydesdale charge a £6 a month fee plus a traditional rate of interest.
If you are overdrawn for lets say half the month, then you could end up paying about three times more with Halifax than Clydesdale.
If you are only overdrawn a few days then Halifax would be cheaper.
It depends what you need and want from a bank, there is no one answer fits all in my experience. For me it isn't about joining bonuses, interest on current accounts, overdraft limits, free insurances or the fact I get some nice people in a call centre and a once a year 'free' banking review with a 25 year old.
What is important to you, surely it's more than a £125 'windfall'?
I think the automatic switching process you go through to qualify for the switching bonus closes your old account at the end.
I switched from HSBC to RBS just this week. Coincidentally, the switching service text me today to day it was finished.
Had enough of HSBC, their customer service is a shambles.
Went with their £16pm platinum account, the travel insurance (me, wife and kid) will be very handy, as well the mobile insurance.
When I cba to get around to it I'm going to do the same with 1st Direct, and then leave after a few months just to get both amounts![]()
I like the sound of this easy money, but will switching to a new account affect my credit rating?
My credit is bad, but it is slowly getting better. I'm pretty sure Experian marked me down because one of my accounts was less than 24 months old.
The last thing I want to do is make it go down hill again
The main things would be decent support if it's ever needed and a decent online system as I tend to do things pretty much online. I currently have a Mastercard Debit card which is very useful. So either Mastercard of perhaps Visa equivalennt would be nice.