Lloyds Bank is giving free £200 to customers but four rules will rule cash gift out
If you're looking for a new bank and want £200 in your pocket then Lloyds are trying to entice you to switch over to their side.
Signing up for one of their bank accounts and switching things over will result in them giving you the same amount of cash as if you'd passed 'Go' on a Monopoly board.
Just in case you were thinking there was such a thing as free money, there isn't, you had best get acquainted with all of the terms and conditions before you make such a monumental financial decision as where to switch your bank account to.
If you want to be able to do this then you need to follow the rules, the first of which is to open an eligible Club Lloyds, Club Lloyds Silver, Club Lloyds Platinum or Premier account and start a full Current Account Switch Service with them by 9 December.
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Those accounts typically require you to pay a monthly fee of £5 unless you're putting at least £2,000 into it each month, and the higher tiers will still require a monthly fee regardless.
Silver will cost you £11.50 a month and Platinum will cost £22.50 a month, while a Premier account is £15 a month unless you're paying in over £5,000 a month or have £100,000 worth of savings and investments, so factor that into your decision before you choose to switch everything over.
There's several other rules to follow if you want to claim your cash gift, you'll also have to transfer over at least three active direct debits, so make sure you actually have three of those before you hop between banks in anticipation of £200.
Card subscriptions and standing orders don't count as direct debits, and neither do direct debits set up after the switch, it's got to be at least three transferred over that you already had in place.
The third rule you need to follow not to miss out on the cash gift is you will be ineligible if you got a Lloyds, Halifax or Bank of Scotland switching incentive since 1 January, 2023.
Banks are often handing out incentives to get people to sign up, so if you already got one from those three banks in the past few years then you're ruled out of getting £200.
If you're switching to a joint account and one of you took advantage of a switching offer in that same timeframe then you don't get the payment.
It's £200 per account and not that amount per person, so if it's a joint account and you're both eligible then you only get one reward between the two of you.
Finally, you can't be switching from a Lloyds, Halifax or Bank of Scotland account, or any other bank that doesn't do current account switching.
It's fine to already be a Lloyds customer, but you need to switch your current account from somewhere else.
You can check here which banks do it, but if you're coming from Halifax, Bank of Scotland or another Lloyds account then that once again rules you out of getting the £200.
Should you meet all of this criteria and not fall foul of the four rules then you can finally pass 'Go' and expect to collect your £200 within 14 working days of your switch date.
Joe Harker