November 2021’s bank account news & round-up

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.

November’s bank account update video

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

November’s current account news

New bank switching deals

Since last month’s update, there have been two three new offers, one two revamps and one extension.

The new offers are from Natwest and Co-op. The Natwest offer is exactly the same as the RBS promotion and offers £100 for switching and another £50 if you stick around for a year. Here’s more info about how it works.

The Co-op deal is a refer-a-friend promotion. You’ll get £50 if you are referred by a friend and switch over. Your friend will also get £50 (capped at £100, so two referrals). It’s for new Co-operative Bank customers only.

An offer that has changed is the one from Virgin Money. This tends to get updated every three or four months, and late in October saw another revamp. Now you can choose between a £150 Virgin Experiences voucher or 12 bottles of Virgin Wine. Here’s more about the offer.

The extended switching deal is from Santander. Due to finish at the start of October, it now ends 2 December 2021. Here’ more on the £130 switching deal.

** UPDATE 3/11/21 **

One more offer has been launched since the weekend. First Halifax has brought back the £125 switch deal. This is open to both new and existing Halifax customers until 14 December 2021.

Meanwhile First Direct has boosted its offer from £100 to £125. This runs until 22 November 2021 and you can read more about it here.

Bank switch deals ending

Obviously any of the offers could be pulled at any time, but we know at least one will end this month, following the Lloyds and HSBC offers which finished in late October.

The RBS offer of up to £150 will finish on 18 November 2021.

Then at the start of next month, the Natwest and Santander offers close on 2 December 2021.

This month’s other bank switch offers

Thes further bank switch offers don’t have a published end date. Click the links for details on each offer.

• Barclays Premier – “£200” Avios switch bonus
• First Direct – £100 switching bonus **Update** Boosted to £130 switching bonus
• Nationwide – Up to £125 switch bonus

The Santander and Lloyds ones are due to end later this month, with RBS set to finish mid-November. The others don’t have a published end date, which means they could go at any time. I’d expect some of them to disappear once the Santander and Lloyds offers go.

Last chance to switch Tesco Bank accounts

Anyone with a Tesco Bank current accounts should start a switch to a new bank by 15 November 2021. After this you won’t be able to switch the account, and it’ll be closed on 30 November 2021. Here’s more on the closures.

More branches closing

Virgin Money, Halifax and Lloyds are all closing more branches. There are 48 from Halifax and Lloyds (read which ones here), and 30 from Virgin (get a list here). All will start closing in early 2022.

Need to call your bank?

There’s a new number to try if you need to phone your bank and are worried about scammers. Simply dial 159 and you’ll be able to say which bank you want to be put through to. Of course, if your bank card has a phone number listed you can try that too.

HSBC biggest loser in switching game

The latest quarterly switching stats have been released, covering July, August and September 2021. Unsurprisingly the biggest month was September when more offers were available.

Though HSBC gained the most new customers (50,192), it also lost the most (66,756), with a net loss of 16,564. So though people are signing up for the free cash, they’re not staying around!

The biggest net gains were Halifax (up 16,684) and Starling (up 13,270). The fact that the latter had no incentives to join shows a good bank experience can be as appealing as free cash!

My top current accounts for November 2021

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)