Lloyds Bank launches £175 bank switching offer - is it any good?
Lloyds Bank has brought back its £175 switching offer. How can you get the bonus and is the current account any good?
This Lloyds bonus is no longer on the market. Please see our best bank switching guide for the latest deals.
If you’re looking to switch current accounts, Lloyds Bank has today (13 February) made a comeback with its £175 bank switching offer amid a drought in the bank switching incentives market.
Last month, TSB, Co-operative Bank and First Direct pulled their deals, leaving no offers for bank switchers to take advantage of.
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But, bonuses offered by providers proved lucrative last year, as data from the Current Account Switch Service (CASS) reveals bank switching reached a record high in 2023 - with the last quarter recording 433,701 switches.
If you’re looking to switch current accounts, find out if the Lloyds offer meets your banking needs.
How to get £175 with the Lloyds bank switching offer
New customers who switch to either the Club Lloyds, Club Lloyds Silver or Club Lloyds Platinum account before 28 March 2024 can get a £175 bonus.
To be eligible for the free cash, you must:
- Use the CASS to complete the full switch by 28 March 2024 and close your existing current account
- Transfer at least two direct debits that are held with another bank
If successful, the bonus will be paid to you within three days of completing the full switch. You are not eligible for this incentive if you have already taken advantage of a switching bonus from Lloyds or Halifax since April 2020.
The three Club Lloyds accounts come with a monthly fee:
- Club Lloyds account - £3 per month
- Club Lloyds Silver account - £10 per month
- Club Lloyds Platinum account - £21 per month
£3 is waived each month if you deposit a minimum of £2,000 in the Silver or Platinum account.
All three accounts come with perks, for example, cashback when you use your card at certain retailers and an interest-free overdraft for the first three months when you switch. But after three months, you will be charged 29.9% APR on any overdraft sum.
Other lifestyle perks include travel insurance, AA breakdown cover, 12 months of Disney Plus and a Lloyds monthly saver account offering 6.25% AER.
How does the Club Lloyds 6.25% monthly saver work?
When you switch to one of the Lloyds Club accounts, you also gain access to its handsome 6.25% AER linked monthly saver, which features in our regular savings best-buy guide.
You can save between £25 and £400 a month. This needs to be paid before the 25th of each month.
The good news is that the 6.25% rate is fixed for 12 months, which means if you open an account, the interest you earn won’t change for that period.
Plus, if you’re looking for an account that offers easy-access, this Lloyds saver allows unlimited withdrawals with no fee attached.
It’s a great account to take advantage of if you’re looking for the best rate in the savings market, as it beats the Bank of England’s 5.25% base rate and the current rate of inflation (at 4%).
It’s also more than what you can earn on an easy-access savings account, which is offering up to 5.2% AER at the time of writing, and you can earn up to 5.21% AER on a one-year fixed saver.
The downside is you can’t pay in a large lump sum to begin with - you can only save up to £400 a month.
Is the Lloyds switching offer any good?
While Lloyds has launched an attractive bonus - which is the only switching bonus on the market right now - you should take into account the monthly fee depending on which Club account you opt for, and ensure it meets your banking needs.
If you are looking for a packaged bank account that offers perks and covers things like mobile and travel insurance, then this might be for you.
Here’s how much you would pay in fees in one year depending on what Club account you hold, and what that leaves from your £175 bonus.
Type of account | Annual fee to hold account | Bonus left from £175 |
---|---|---|
Club Lloyds account | £36 | £139 |
Club Lloyds Silver account | £120 | £55 |
Club Lloyds Platinum account | £252 | £0. On month 8 you would have paid a total of £168 in fees, leaving £7. |
As it’s the only switching incentive available at the moment, it can’t be compared to another deal.
But the majority of offers we have seen in the last year have offered a switch bonus and no monthly fee to hold the account - so it could be worth waiting for more deals to appear, especially if you’re not looking for a packaged bank account.
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Vaishali has a background in personal finance and a passion for helping people manage their finances. As a staff writer for MoneyWeek, Vaishali covers the latest news, trends and insights on property, savings and ISAs.
She also has bylines for the U.S. personal finance site Kiplinger.com and Ideal Home, GoodTo, inews, The Week and the Leicester Mercury.
Before joining MoneyWeek, Vaishali worked in marketing and copywriting for small businesses. Away from her desk, Vaishali likes to travel, socialise and cook homely favourites
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