FREE £125 PLUS 2% CASHBACK ON BILLS
WHAT’S NEW SWITCHING BANK ACCOUNTS COULD GIVE
AJANUARY Lexie H
These vary from one year down to 30 days – prices can be anything from £15 to £50 a month.
If you are less than 100% committed or think you might have finance or other issues, go for cheap with easy-to-escape contracts. But always read the paperwork carefully and, if possible, compare local gyms.
Cancelling a contract is never easy, the more so because DW and you cannot agree on dates.
It says you only froze membership for two months in July so it was right to start again in October. It also says it has offered to let you have full membership for November for £5 as a goodwill gesture.
But you want to be rid of this membership altogether, given your personal circumstances, even if there is only December to run. DW is happy for you to end the contract early on medical grounds – so you won’t need to prove financial hardship (difficult anyway as you might have more than one account). But this will mean a visit to your doctor so they can stamp the medical certificate which DW will send you.
This is not exactly what you wanted. It’s a compromise between that and the contract.
Do you have a consumer question? Send it to
THERE are laws against bribery, but luckily they don’t apply to banks custom.wanting to bung you free money in return for your There’s a banking price war on right now which means you can earn up to £200 for switching account. So take a bribe, and get some extra cash in the kitty before Christmas.
Don’t just do this for the money either. I get more complaints about banks than any other sector apart from energy, yet people loyally stick with the perpetrators for years.
If that’s you, stop bitching and start switching. Many of the accounts that pay have decent service too.
SWITCHING IS EASY, THEY DO IT ALL FOR YOU
TO GET the free cash you’ll be credit scored (it’s not too harsh) and will need to go through the bank’s official switching services which guarantee you’re switched within seven working days.
Your new bank moves direct debits and standing orders for you, and closes your old account.
All payments to your old account are automatically forwarded.
THE TOP CURRENT ACCOUNT GIVE-AWAYS
THESE change regularly. See my full guide at moneysavingexpert. com for full daily updated details and all the tips and eligibility criteria.
Here’s a quick summary of the top deals at the time of writing…
FREE £200 (£150 UPFRONT, £50 IF YOU STAY) + 5% FIXED SAVINGS
SWITCH to the hsbc.co.uk Advance account and you can get £150 free cash. Stay with it for a year and you’ll get another £50. It also lets you save up to £250 per month in its linked 5% fixed regular savings account.
With HSBC like most banks there’s a minimum monthly pay in to get you to pay in your salary. Here it’s a relatively large £1,750.
If you don’t earn that much there’s a way around it. If you earn £1,000 a month, then just withdraw £750 and pay it straight back in and you will qualify. ■ When do you get the money? Within 30 calendar days TECH giant
Google has launched a voice-activated assistant complete with display screen. Released last week, the smart speaker is neat and unobtrusive and a steal at £130 from Currys PC World, John Lewis and Partners or Carphone Warehouse.
Google Home Hub
SWITCH to most NatWest.co.uk current accounts and you’ll get £125.
Among those is the NatWest Reward account where for a monthly £2 fee you get 2% cashback on household bills that you pay via direct debit from it, including council tax, water, energy and broadband – many can earn £100 a year from this. Its minimum monthly pay-in is £1,500.
■ When do you get the money? It’ll be paid in February – so way after Christmas – and you’ll need
to keep your account till then.
FREE GADGETS PLUS TOP SERVICE
THOUGH not free cash, switch to FirstDirect. com and you can choose a free gift from a selection of gadgets (eg £120 Amazon Echo or £120
SAVVY
Fitbit), or a £150 Expedia voucher.
It’s also won every customer service poll I’ve done for the past eight years – 89% rate it ‘great’. You’ll also get a £250, 0% overdraft, and can open a linked 5% regular saver. The Switch for the service, minimum monthly pay as well as the cash in is £1,000. ■ When do you get the freebies? Within two weeks of paying in your first £1,000 you’re emailed instructions on how to get the freebie which can then take up to a month or so to arrive.
FREE £125 M&S VOUCHERS WITH NO MONTHLY PAY IN
SWITCH to bank.marksandspencer. com and you get a £125 M&S gift card with no-minimum monthly pay in.
If you do pay in £1,250 a month, however, you can earn an additional £5 a month voucher for a year.
It also has a linked 5% fixed regular savings account.
■ When do you get the money? Within a month of switching –
SPEND SPLURGE
again, that’s plenty of time for Christmas.
OVERDRAWN? YOU CAN SWITCH TOO…
BEING overdrawn doesn’t stop you switching, though you may not get the same overdraft limit as your current account. For those with smaller overdrafts, the First Direct account above is useful as, as well as the free gadgets it offers an interest-free £250 overdraft – an easy way to avoid costs.
Alternatively, Nationwide.co.uk’s FlexDirect gives a year’s 0% overdraft, yet there’s no set limit – it depends on your credit score.
After the year you pay 50p a day if you’re overdrawn, so do use the time to try and ditch the debt.
■ Martin Lewis is the founder and chair of MoneySavingExpert. com. You can tweet him @MartinSLewis and visit moneysavingexpert.com/ latesttip for his free Money Tips weekly email.
I AM not happy with my local DW Fitness gym which I joined last January on a £41 a month one-year contract. It started well but then there were two family deaths, my mum’s major operation, my depression and my changing jobs so I want out.
In late July, it froze membership for three months – at £5 a month – and it unfroze this one month early in October when it took £41 again. They refused to pay this back but said I could use the gym for November and December at £5 a month in compensation.
But I don’t want this – and I never want to see the place again or spend more money there.
Can I get out of my contract? I can’t show I am struggling financially, although I am, without displaying my bank account. As for medical reasons, my sick note has now run out and I don’t want to trouble my doctor.
is the top month for gym joining. But getting fitter after the festive season should also involve looking at contracts.
ALDI has launched its first
beauty calendar
for £49.99 and it’s very similar to a £300 Jo Malone one. The budget supermarket’s offering, pictured, contains an assortment of products from its luxury collection, including candles, diffusers and body creams.