Martin Lewis says a bank will pay you £205 to switch before Christmas. The ITV The Martin Lewis Money Show shared the HSBC UK hack – and all it requires is a banana – as the Cost of Living crisis continues to bite UK households at a time of intense financial struggle for many.
“There is a bank that will pay you a bonus and you don’t have to use its switching service, it, lets you keep your old service,” Martin explained. “It’s from HSBC and it’s for newbies. Someone wrote to me the other day an… there’s lots of times you have to do spending to trigger something.
“And they called it banana swipes because I always say spend a banana. So what we’re saying is literally you get your banana, and you go in the store, you buy it once and there you go, that’s a spending. So we’re gonna call them banana swipes from now on. There’s more of them to come.”
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In Martin Lewis’s Money Saving Expert (MSE) newsletter this week, the group wrote: “We often talk about cash bribes for switching banks – but now there’s a trick to grab a free £205 without even doing that. The account in itself isn’t a top pick, but the free money is lovely, and as you can get it without switching, and can get the cash in time for Christmas, why not…”
To get the £205, customers must deposit at least £1,500, make a minimum of five payments on the HSBC debit card and register and log on to HSBC’s mobile banking app. Then, you must open an HSBC Global Money Account and order a Global Money multi-currency debit card.
Mr Lewis’ team said the five payments have no minimum spend so “you could just buy five bananas one at a time”. “None of that should take up much time, so the £125 you get is pretty decent for the work you do. The money will then be paid into the Global Money account within 20 days,” Mr Lewis’ group added.
