£100 incentive from Abbey and A&L

With the competition amongst the leading UK banks and building societies for increased custom some have been offering consumers incentives to entice them to switch their bank accounts, and this is something that Abbey and Alliance & Leicester have now decided to do.

The two banks come under the Spanish banking giant Santander, and are hoping to take customers from rival banks by offering a cash incentive to those switching their accounts to an Abbey or Alliance & Leicester account.

It has been announced that a cash bonus of £100 will be given to customers that switch their accounts to Abbey’s Preferred Overdraft Rate or A&L’s Premier Current Account after September 7th.

However, those interested in the offer will have to meet funding requirements for the two accounts, which are £1000 a month for the Abbey account and £500 a month for the Alliance & Leicester account.

Gillian Almond, Santander’s head of UK current accounts, said: ‘This is good news for those looking to switch their current account’ She added: ‘With most providers offering little or no incentives, Abbey and A&L are bucking the trend by offering GBP 100 to those who switch to us from another provider’.

There is also going to be an interest increase on the Preferred Overdraft account to 0.5% AER for new customers.

There are also some other banks that are offering cash incentives to customers that decide to switch their accounts to them, although most have minimum funding requirements.

This includes the Internet banking arm of HSBC, which is First Direct, which is offering £100 to customers that open an account providing they meet minimum monthly funding requirements of £1500 or have another First Direct product such as a savings account or mortgage.

Tags: bank accounts, rate, uk banks, alliance & leicester, Current account, bank, Leicester account, alliance & leicester bank account