May 2024’s current account news & offers

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.

May’s bank account update videos

For a more detailed update, watch this video from my YouTube channel.

May’s current account news

Latest bank switching deals

April was pretty quite for switch deals, especially towards the end of the month, but there are a few new ones coming through now.

The pick of the bunch is the return of £175 from First Direct, though sadly this time you can’t boost it via TopCashback. The reason this stands out is there’s also a 7% regular saver available to current account customers. All the details are here.

Virgin Money is also back in the mix after an absence of 19 months. This one sounds good, but in reality isn’t quite as it seems. You’ll get 10% interest on savings of £1,000 for a year, which combined with the underlying 2% means an reward of £120. Plus apply via Snoop and there’s another £35 available. However, putting the same cash in a top paying savings account knocks about £50 off this. Here’s my full analysis of the offer.

For those who live in Northern Ireland then there’s £200 available from Danske Bank. It’s relatively simple to get. More info here.

There is also the Barclay’s Premier Banking offer via it’s Avios Rewards scheme. However, that’s now only worth £125 is swapped to Nectar points, and requires a high income.

One to look out for – in April, some Lloyds customers were offered the chance to refer friends. If so, they’ll earn £50 and the friend will get £150. It ended 6 May, but could well return.

Trading 212 increases cashback

We covered the new Trading 212 cashback card recently, and decided the 0.5% rate wasn’t anything to get excited about. Well, it seems others agreed as the rate has been boosted to 1.5% until 1 October 2024.

The same monthly £20 cap applies, which means you’ll earn the cashback on the first £1,333 each month – which for most will be plenty. Then from October it’ll drop to 0.5%.

You still currently can’t add your card to Google or Apple Pay, though Trading 212 hope it’ll be on Apple in May and Google around a month later. It seems until then you can add it via Curve, though it looks like there are a fair few issues doing this.

YouGov Finance ends

I’ve previously shared with you how connecting current accounts and other financial products to YouGov Finance was a nice little money maker, with up to £50 available every three months. Sadly, two weeks ago they ended earning of points for sharing your data.

It could be this returns in some form, no doubt in a less lucrative way. But for now, they’ll keep using your data unless you go in and manually remove the permissions.

Fortunatley you get the points when you connect the account, so you’ll at least get them any for the current period.

Emma cuts free features

Aggregator and budgeting app Emma has “transitioned” some key features away from the free plan to the paid for tiers. This includes budgeting, tracking and transaction history over two months.

You can still add two accounts for free to see all your payments in and out, but that’s about it now. I don’t see the benefit in paying for these added features, though if you are willing to do so, perhaps consider Monzo Extra (£3 a month, and you can add other banks) or MoneyHub (£1.49 a month or £15 a year)

Monzo adds three new upgrade options

Though I’m not a fan of paying for bank accounts, many are, so these new options from Monzo, which replace the existing upgrades, are worth a look.

So out go Plus and Premium, in come Extra, Perks and Max. Extra is similar to Plus but £2 cheaper (it’s £3 a month). Perks is £7 a month as offers a Railcard and free Greggs each week. Max replaces Premium and offers travel and gadget insurance for £17 a month, which is not only more money (up from £15) but also now only covers a single person. We’ve reviewed each one in detail if you want to learn more:

• Monzo Extra review
• Monzo Perks review
• Monzo Max review

Lloyds and Halifax up packaged account fees

There’s also a price hike for the accounts with insurance from Halifax and Lloyds. From 1 July 2024 you’ll pay the following each month:

• Halifax Ultimate Reward: £19 (£2 increase)
• Lloyds Silver £11.50 (£1.40 increase)
• Lloyds Platinum £22.50 (£1.40 increase)

The two Lloyds accounts are also available as “Club” versions, which come with another £3 monthly fee on top, though that can be wiped out by depositing £2,000 each month.

As well as getting more expensive, you’ll also be able to use your debit cards fee-free on these cards from this date. However, I’d still recommend an alternative card for holiday spending.

Co-op ends Everyday Rewards

I’ve never been a fan of the rewards scheme from Co-operative Bank as it required a lot of effort just to make £2.20 a week. Well on 31 May 2024 it’ll end. If you’re owed any cash it’ll be paid by 30 June 2024. If you’d like a better reward current account, check out my guide to what freebies are on offer.

Coventry Building Society to buy Co-op Bank

While we’re talking about Co-op Bank, it’s agreed to sell the business to Coventry Building Society. Obviously that’ll be a concern for those who’ve gone with Co-op for ethical reasons.

The good news is building societies are generally pretty decent as the bulk of the cash saved with them goes towards home mortgages, as opposed to the bigger banks where your funds could be used to invest in things like oil pipelines or arms manufacturers. Right now there’s still a long way to go for the deal to go through, so I’ll update you when there’s more certainty.

This is the second big building society planning to buy a high street bank, following Nationwide’s plan to snap up Virgin Money. And there’s also Sainsbury’s and Tesco Banks exiting the market soon.

Yet more branch closures in 2024

RBS and Halifax have all announced more branch closures for this year. You can find out if your local is affected in these articles:

• Halifax, Lloyds & Bank of Scotland branches to close in 2024
• NatWest, RBS & Ulster branch closures set for 2024

Triodos ditches overdrafts

From 17 June 2024 you’ll no longer get an overdraft with Triodos Bank, whether a new or existing customer. If you currently use one then look for a letter or email sent on 17 April which breaks down what you’ll need to do.

Starling cheque upload issues

A quick one for any of you uploading your cheques using your banking app. I received a £10 refund from Amex which I tried unsuccessfully to pay in via the Starling app three times. And it was lucky I checked as I hadn’t spotted the notification the first time saying it was rejected for being blurry (even though it was crystal clear)

I vaguely remember this issue in the past and I think I got over it by taking the photo on a black background, but instead I tried out Monzo’s new feature to do the same and it worked no problem

Revolut to show adverts?

Finally, could we be seeing adverts in our banking apps? FinExtra reported that Revolut has hired a TikTok executive to explore how they could do this. Of course it might not happen, but I wouldn’t be surprised if we do, and equally that there’s the option to pay more to get rid of them! If this ever happens, I’ll let you know.

My top current accounts for May 2024

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 / app – Starling (review)
2. Best account for everyday spending – Chase (review)
3. Best account for bills – Santander Edge (review)
4. Best account for rewards – Halifax Reward (review)
5. Best account for savings interest – Santander Edge (review)
6. Best account for 0% overdraft – Nationwide FlexDirect (12 months only) (review)