CURRENT account customers who switch to NatWest will be rewarded with £125 in cash under the bank's new offer.

Both new and existing NatWest customers who switch their main bank account by November 19, or sooner if more people than expected take up the deal, will be paid the perk.

To get the £125, you must switch via the Current Account Switch Service, which will automatically close your existing bank account down as part of the process.

You must also pay in at least £1,500 to the account and log into online or mobile banking through the NatWest mobile app before January 15, 2020.

You'll then receive the £125 into your account by February 12, 2021.

New and existing customers can apply but you must be 18 or over and you can't have received a cash switching offer from the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) Group, which NatWest is part of, since October 2017.

Sister bank RBS currently pays a smaller £100 to switch.

Payments linked to your existing account, such as direct debits and standing orders are automatically transferred to the newly opened account within seven days.

Is it worth switching to NatWest?

New to NatWest customers can either switch to a Select or Reward account, as can existing customers, who can also apply to switch to Reward Silver, Reward Platinum or Reward Black account.

Select is the bank's fee-free account, which enables customers to withdraw money from a cash machine without their bank card using a passcode sent to their mobile phone. 

The other accounts do, however, charge a monthly fee. Reward costs £2 a month, Silver costs £10 a month, Platinum is £20 a month, and it's £31 a month for Black.

These fee paying accounts come with additional perks though, for example, Reward pays you £4 a month if you have two direct debits set-up, and an additional £1 a month for logging into online banking.

Platinum, meanwhile, comes with worldwide travel insurance, mobile insurance, and car breakdown cover among other benefits.

None of the accounts have a fee-free overdraft though, with them mostly all charging 39.49%.

So you need to work out what's best for your needs – do you want an account with a fee-free overdraft buffer or would you prefer an account that pays interest on savings or cashback on spending?

Alternatively, is an account offering fee-free overseas spending better suited for your needs? And if you're a student, you might find a student or graduate account more suitable.

The top accounts for overdrafts, for example, are currently First Direct and M&S, according to consumer site MoneySavingExpert, each with a £250 0% overdraft and no minimum monthly deposits required.

Meanwhile, Virgin Money is best for in-credit interest paying 2.02% on up to £1,000 with no minimum pay-in required. Plus, you get fee-free spending and cash withdrawals overseas.

But neither First Direct, M&S or Virgin Money currently pay switching bonuses.

What about other switching offers?

If it's just the cold, hard switching cash you're after then NatWest's £125 is joint market-leading alongside HSBC, according to MoneySavingExpert.com.

Here, switchers to HSBC's Advance account or Premier account will also get £125 but you must meet certain requirements.

Advance, for example, comes with a hefty minimum monthly pay-in of £1,750, or a minimum of £10,500 every six months.

While for the Premier account, you’ll need to have a minimum salary of £75,000, plus a HSBC mortgage, investment, life insurance or a protection product.

Alternatively, you can qualify by having £50,000 in savings with an existing HSBC account.

In addition, you’ll need to set up at least two direct debits or standing orders within 30 days of opening your new account, and you must not have been a HSBC current account holder of any type since January 1, 2017.

You also can't have have opened either a First Direct or M&S current
account, which are both part of the HSBC Group, on or after January 1, 2017.

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