The latest news to help you get the most from your bank account.

Here’s my monthly update sharing changes for leading UK current accounts, as well as some of the relevant articles you might have missed on the blog.

June’s bank account update videos

For a more detailed update, watch these videos from my YouTube channel.

June’s current account news

Latest bank switching deals

Since last month’s update, two new deals have been launched. First it’s the return of HSBC, this time offering £170, which is a fiver less than their most recent promotion but still higher paying than the other options. Here’s my analysis.

Next is Lloyds, and though at £125 it’s worth £25 less than their February offer, it’s going to be better for most people. For a start it’s once again available on the standard Club Lloyds account. But even better, the date where previous Lloyds switchers are eligible has moved up to April 2020. This means some (including myself) who switched back in 2019 can get the money again! Here are all the details.

Ongoing deals with no set deadline (though they could go any time) are from Virgin Money, Nationwide and First Direct and more complicated deals from Barclays Premier and Co-op.

You can switch multiple times (all at once or one after the other), just be aware of the impact on your credit score.

This month’s bank switch offers

• Barclays Premier – “£200” Avios switch bonus
• Co-op – £50 refer-a-friend offer
• First Direct – £150
• HSBC – £170
• Lloyds – £125 (ends 27 June)
• Nationwide – Up to £125 switch bonus
• Virgin Money – 20,000 Virgin Points

Chase launches £20 refer-a-friend deal

If you’ve been struggling to open a Chase account, it’s thanks to this new deal from Chase. At one point the whole onboarding system crashed, and now applications are being processed in batches, meaning it’s taking three or more days for new accounts to be opened.

It’s a refer-a-friend scheme, where new Chase customers can get £20 if they sign up via a referral link and deposit £20 in their account.

At the same time, the referrer will also get £20 for each person who uses their link, though this is capped at £400. Find out more (and get a referral link) in my analysis of the deal here.

500,000 customers join Chase

JPMorgan Chase recently revealed how the UK launch of its current account has fared. In the eight months since accounts could first be opened, more than 500,000 people have signed up. A total of $10bn dollars have been deposited, with 30% of customers “highly engaged”.

Those numbers are massive when compared to other start-up banks. It took Starling 18 months to get to 250,000 customers, while though Monzo reached 500,000 current accounts in six months too, most of these were conversions of prepaid cards.

This massive growth hasn’t been cheap though! The 1% cashback, 1.5% interest on savings and now £20 referral scheme mean it’s making huge losses, and the bank doesn’t expect to break even until 2027/28. Here’s my full Chase review.

Virgin Money launches prize draw

If you’ve got a current account with Virgin Money you’ll now be able to enter a monthly prize draw to win up to one million Virgin Points. The promotion runs from May to September 2022, with the first draw on 1 June, then 1 July, 1 August and finally 1 September.

To be eligible you need to:

• Activate the offer in your Virgin Money account
• Make at least one transaction in the previous month

Entering the offer is pretty simple. Go to the Discover tab on the bank’s app, then click ‘Exclusive Rewards’. You’ll need too add in your account details – which if you don’t have your card on you are in the app! So copy these before starting the process.

Transactions count as transfers, deposits, withdrawals or payments. If you want to enter the first draw make sure you do this before 31 May 2022.

Prizes are:

• 1 x 1 million points
• 25 x 12 bottles of Virgin Wine

You can use points at a number of Virgin brands, including Atlantic, Wines and Experiences, or a shops such as Gregs. Read more about Virgin Points here.

More bank branch closures

Halifax, Lloyds and Barclays have all announced yet more branches to go in 2022. Read more about which ones are going at Halifax and Lloyds here, and Barclays here.

My top current accounts for June 2022

I always think it’s worth having more than one current account (find out why here) and here’s my run-down of the top accounts to have this month.

1. Best account for everyday banking – Starling (review)
2. Best account for everyday spending – Chase (review)
3. Best account for bills – Santander 123 Lite (review)
4. Best account for rewards – Halifax Reward (review)
5. Best account for 0% overdraft – Nationwide FlexDirect (12 months only) (review)