40,000 Nationwide members given £175 free cash | Personal Finance | Finance
Nationwide is the world’s largest building society (Image: ilbusca via Getty Images)
Recent figures show Nationwide gave more than 40,000 members a £175 switching bonus in just two months.
Current account switches have exceeded one million for the third consecutive year following a spike in consumers seeking better deals towards the end of 2025.
Nationwide Building Society attracted 41,450 customers between July and September, with savers enticed by its £175 switching incentive and annual payments through its profit-sharing scheme.
The final quarter of 2025 proved the busiest period, recording 350,114 current account switches, according to figures from the Current Account Switch Service (Cass).
The service enables consumers to transfer their current account automatically by having payments redirected to a new provider.
Some people transfer their funds outside of Cass, meaning the figures provided exclude those switches.
There were 1,054,521 switches in total throughout 2025 – marking the third successive year that switches have surpassed one million.
However this represents a decline compared to the volumes recorded in 2023 and 2024, when elevated interest rates were pushing up savings rates in the marketplace.
Interest rates have been falling since August 2024.
Nationwide secured the highest number of customers switching to its current accounts between July and September, with Cass’s data published three months in arrears.
It was followed by Monzo and NatWest, which added 9,934 and 8,731 respectively.
Read more: High street bank hands out £175 if Brits complete one job in 10 days
Read more: Martin Lewis issues savings warning – ‘put it in Nationwide or Halifax instead’
At the opposite end of the spectrum, customers were departing from banks including Santander, which shed almost 20,000 current accounts during the period. Halifax and JP Morgan’s Chase also experienced a loss, with 17,341 and 7,623 accounts switching away respectively.
John Dentry, product manager at Pay.UK, which operates Cass, said: “That level of activity is a clear sign of a healthy, competitive banking market, where people feel empowered to shop around and move to an account that better meets their needs.
“At a time when every pound matters, we want consumers to feel confident they can move their money to an account that better suits their needs – quickly, easily, and with the reassurance of a free, guaranteed switch.”
Andrew Hagger, personal finance expert at Moneycomms, praised Nationwide for standing “head and shoulders above every other provider” in terms of gaining customers from competitors.
“Nationwide has been particularly strong during the last two years, winning a massive 404,207 customers from competitor banks,” he noted.
Alastair Douglas, chief executive of TotallyMoney, observed that current account switching “heated up” towards the end of 2025, adding: “And we’re unlikely to see things slow down any time soon, as a magnificent seven banks are currently offering switch incentives of at least £175, including Co-op, First Direct, HSBC Premier, Lloyds, Nationwide, Santander and TSB.
“You might also find a new bank can provide you with better service, an interest-free overdraft or high street branches.
“Loyalty doesn’t pay, but more often than not, moving your money can.”
