Nationwide launches £175 bank switch offer plus extra perks - how can you get the switching bonus?

Nationwide has launched a new bank switch offer in a bid to woo customers to its Flex current account range.

The building society is offering £175 to new customers who sign up to one of three current accounts: FlexPlus, FlexDirect and FlexAccount. These come with a regular savings account that offers an above-inflation rate.

It’s the second new switcher offer to have been announced in September after First Direct also unveiled a new incentive. While Nationwide’s latest deal isn’t quite as generous as the £200 it offered earlier in 2024, the building society is popular, meaning the offer could end soon. Nationwide has also scored points with customers over its ‘Fairer Share’ loyalty bonus, which paid out £100 to members this year.

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As with any switching bonus, we recommend checking the small print as well as what hoops you need to jump through before deciding to make the move. You should also consider whether the account you’d like to switch to meets your needs. If you’ve got a credit application coming up, it’s worth noting that switching can have an impact on your credit score.

So, how can you get the £175? Here’s everything you need to know about Nationwide’s latest switching deal.

How does the Nationwide bank switch offer work?

Nationwide is offering £175 to any new customers who opt to switch to one of its Flex current accounts. These accounts are:

• FlexAccount: a no-frills account that offers online or in-branch banking with no fees.
• FlexDirect: an interest-paying current account with no fees (but several rules - see more below).
• FlexPlus: a packaged account offering a load of perks - including worldwide travel insurance and no charges for using your card abroad - for a £13 a month (£156 a year) fee. This fee is rising to £18 a month (£216 a year) from 1 December.

To get your hands on the free money, you will need to initiate a switch using the Current Account Switching Service (CASS). You can do this by opening an account with Nationwide via its website or mobile banking app, and requesting a CASS switch. The account you’re switching from must have at least two direct debits that will be transferred with it.

When your new Nationwide account opens, you will need to deposit £1,000 into it (this can’t come from another Nationwide account or through Visa credit), and make one debit card transaction. Cash withdrawals, gambling and mortgage payments do not count. If you do this within 31 days of the account opening, the money will be wired into your account.

The other key bit of eligibility criteria is that it’s not open to those who have received a bonus for switching over a sole or joint account since 18 August 2021, and are trying to do so again for the same type of account. But, if you opened a sole account to get the last switcher incentive, Nationwide will allow you to get the bonus for switching over a joint account, and vice versa.

What is the difference between Nationwide’s Flex current accounts?

As mentioned above, the three accounts Nationwide is trying to get people to switch to come with different benefits and rules. Here’s what you can get.

FlexAccount

Nationwide’s basic offering. This standard account offers no perks and doesn’t charge fees. But it will make you eligible for the Fairer Share loyalty bonus, and you’ll be able to access Nationwide’s range of savings accounts which all currently offer inflation-busting rates.

The building society has also revealed that it will be bringing in changes to its overdrafts from November. With this account, as well as the other two (below), customers will get a £50 interest-free buffer if they dip into the contingency they’ve agreed with Nationwide.

FlexDirect

This fee-free current account pays you interest on your cash on the first day of each month. You will get a rate of 5% (fixed for a year) on balances of up to £1,500. To access this, you have to pay in £1,000 a month from a non-Nationwide account. Once the 12 months is up, the interest rate falls to 1%.

If you haven’t had a FlexDirect incentive before, you will also be able to get 1% cashback on your debit card transactions (capped at £5 a month). This will run for the first year of having the account. Another benefit is that you will get an interest-free arranged overdraft for the first 12 months.

A key thing to note with this account is that Nationwide deems it to be ‘self-service’. What this means is that customers can only bank online or over the phone. So, if you like having the option of in-branch banking, this account may not be suitable for you.

FlexPlus 

For £13 a month, you get lots of bells and whistles with this current account. Benefits include Aviva worldwide travel insurance cover for you and your family, Assurant mobile insurance, AA breakdown cover in the UK and Europe, as well as no charges on spending abroad.

You can also bank in any way you like, be that online, over the phone or in-branch. The rub is that the monthly fee will rise 38% to £18 a month (£216 per year) from 1 December. It means you’ll need to weigh up whether the perks meet your needs before signing up.

How does Nationwide compare with the rest of the market?

Given it offers plenty of ways of boosting the £175 cash bonus (for example, via Fairer Share and cashback), the Nationwide deal compares favourably with the only other incentive currently on market from First Direct. The process of securing the cash is also slightly easier than with First Direct, given you don’t need to log-in to digital banking and you only need to make one debit card transaction.

If you’re someone who wants to bank ethically, be that for environmental or other CSR reasons, Nationwide tends to outrank most other major banks. As a member-focused building society, it also beats shareholder-focused First Direct on this front.

But where First Direct has the measure of Nationwide is with the rate it offers on its regular saver, which is 0.5 percentage points higher at 7%. The HSBC subsidiary also routinely comes out on top in customer satisfaction surveys. The pair are tied when it comes to their online banking scores.

The bottom line is, there is no ‘best’ current account to switch to as it all depends on what you need from a current account. To keep in the loop with new deals and offers, see our guide to banks offering the best switching deals.