Bank customers are being sent a total of £890 by five high street banks Lloyds, Natwest, First Direct, Santander and Barclays thanks to lucrative bank switching bonuses that are back on the market for a limited time.

And individual customers could theoretically grab all of that £840 because there’s nothing to stop you switching multiple bank accounts or switching multiple times in order to rack up several bonuses.

Right now, the four banks will offer up to £185 each to lure customers to ditch their existing account and swap to them instead.

Bank customers are notoriously ‘sticky’, with the majority who were previously surveyed by Martin Lewis admitting that they hadn’t changed their bank in over 20 years. That’s the reason bank switching bonuses are so lucrative; they have to be in order to lure customers away from bank accounts they have grown used to using for years and in some cases even decades.

Bank switching is easy and instant – once the switch is initiated, the bank switching service will take care of everything within 7 days and all your direct debits will be transferred over, too.

Right now, Club Lloyds is offering £185 to switch, lus other perks including 12 months of Disney Plus and access to a linked regular saver paying 6.25% interest fixed for a year. The catch is you can’t switch from a Halifax, Bank of Scotland or Lloyds account and you need to pay in £5 a month to maintain the account, so it’s worth it if you earn £2,000 or more.

Santander is giving customers who switch £180, as well as a £25 Amazon voucher, with a linked 6% easy-access savings account and 1% cashback on bills like council tax and energy and regular spending like supermarket shopping. 

First Direct is giving customers £175, plus a 7% regular savings account and fee-free overseas spending. 

Barclays is giving customers £175 free to switch, plus 4.61% interest on cash up to £5,000, and an Apple TV subscription. 

To get the cash from Barclays, you need to join its £5 a month Blue Rewards scheme, which also requires £800 a month paid into the account.

Finally, Natwest is paying £125 to customers who switch, plus £50 on top for anyone who opens its 5.5% interest linked regular saver.

There are no laws against having multiple bank accounts in your name from multiple banks, and no laws or rules against switching various bank accounts regularly to get paid bank switch bonuses.

In fact some people have what is known as a ‘mule’ account which they just switch constantly in order to grab switching bonuses – Martin Lewis told his ITV audience he heard of people making over £1,000 a year from bank switching in this way.

Speaking in June 2024 he said on his show: “I know some people who made well over a grand just from switching accounts like that.”