BBC podcast<\/a>, the consumer champion urged people to shop around to see whether they could secure a better deal. He said now is the time to look at jumping ship as a number of banks are currently offering cash bonuses to customers who switch their current account. At the time of writing, these include \u00a3220 from HSBC, \u00a3200 offers from either First Direct, NatWest, Barclays, or \u00a3180 from Santander.<\/p>\nOne exciting change in the switch offer market is that switching bonuses are currently available on certain packaged bank accounts, which rarely have such incentives.<\/p>\n
‘Very exciting’<\/p>\n
Mr Lewis described this as a “very exciting and lucrative” opportunity. Packaged bank accounts are current accounts that offer additional benefits, such as travel insurance or car breakdown cover for you or your family, though they do require paying a monthly fee.<\/p>\n
Mr Lewis said: “For those who would be buying those insurances any way, they can be a really good deal. Right now, we do have a few packaged bank accounts that are paying you to switch.<\/p>\n
“So the amount they are paying you effectively covers that fee, so you are effectively getting the insurances for free.” He explained that by taking advantage of one of these deals, you could potentially receive \u00a3500 or \u00a3600 worth of insurance at no cost.<\/p>\n
This is because some bank switching incentives typically match or exceed a full year’s worth of the monthly account fee. He provided some figures to illustrate how these complimentary perks could save you a considerable sum.<\/p>\n
For instance, worldwide family travel insurance would ordinarily set you back \u00a370 to \u00a3100 annually. Household mobile phone cover available with these bank accounts would usually cost \u00a375 to \u00a3100 per policy, while UK and European breakdown cover could run to \u00a350 to \u00a3100.<\/p>\n
Which packaged bank accounts currently offer switching incentives?<\/p>\n
The deals presently available include the Santander Edge Explorer, which offers a \u00a3180 payment upon switching. The account carries a \u00a317 monthly fee, meaning the switching bonus would cover this for an entire year.<\/p>\n
Alternatively, there is the Co-Op Bank Everyday Extra account, which has a \u00a312 monthly fee. New customers can receive up to \u00a3300 for switching, effectively covering the fee for more than two years.<\/p>\n
A further option is the Nationwide Flex Plus, from Nationwide Building Society. The organisation is offering \u00a3175 to new switchers, covering the \u00a318 monthly account fee for nine months.<\/p>\n
A notable advantage of the Nationwide Flex Plus account is that its worldwide travel insurance carries no age restriction, unlike other packaged accounts offering switch deals, making it particularly appealing to older customers. One older couple wrote in to the show to share their positive experience with their Nationwide Flex Plus account.<\/p>\n
‘Great deal’<\/p>\n
They revealed that they are both in their 70s, and they pay extra to cover their health conditions, yet they still consider their account a “great deal”. They went on to explain that they also pay \u00a340 to upgrade their cruise cover, to include cabin confinements and missed ports.<\/p>\n
This proved invaluable recently when they embarked on a seven-day cruise, during which they missed two ports. The couple contacted the insurer and received \u00a3150 each for each of the two missed ports, with the \u00a3600 arriving in their account “very quickly” with no paperwork needed.<\/p>\n
They said: “More than covered our additional premium. Highly recommend.” Mr Lewis was delighted to hear that the account had proved so worthwhile for the couple.<\/p>\n
He said: “They do work, and I tend to find they are especially good in two cases. Family with lots of teens and smart phones, because you get all the mobile phones in; or travel insurance cover for older couples and families, because often that can get really expensive.<\/p>\n
“Suddenly the cost of the packaged bank account is the same as you’d pay just for the travel insurance, never mind that you get the mobile phone cover and the breakdown cover on top.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"He said there are several bank accounts with “very exciting” offers Martin Lewis shared some tips around bank…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":81162,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[21264],"tags":[3343,26525,146,9881,2150,6191,7955,6240,3533],"class_list":["post-81161","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-barclays","tag-barclays","tag-barclays-bank","tag-bbc","tag-hsbc","tag-martin-lewis","tag-nationwide","tag-natwest","tag-santander","tag-your-money"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@UnitedKingdom\/116901221676170065","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81161","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=81161"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81161\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/81162"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=81161"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=81161"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=81161"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Martin](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/0_ML-1.jpg\")
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