Martin Lewis says get free £1,700 bonus with dedicated bank account

Martin Lewis has urged bank customers to successfully switch their accounts - in a bid to earn THOUSANDS in bonuses. Free switch offers from high street banks mean customers can be handed as much as £1,700 all by regularly switching.

ITV star Martin heard from one audience member on this week's Money Show, detailing how they made an eye-watering £1,700 from switching. Money Saving Expert founder Mr Lewis and BBC star said: "There are a lot of people out there who switch bank accounts all the time. If you were to do one switch, this is for everybody, if you do one switch, well it’s an application on your credit file which has a very minor short term negative effect.

“Lots of those in a short space of time can be an impact, and banks also like to see evidence of longevity, so that’s also slightly negative, so I wouldn’t switch my bank account if I had a mortgage application due in the next two months. Longer than that, I wouldn’t care. It’s only very minor and it doesn’t really have a hit.

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“Switching very regularly can have a bigger impact." The financial expert went on and said: “People always think ‘oh it will hurt my credit score’, your credit score is the thing to use, if you’re not going to use it do what’s best for you to make money.”

The Current Account Switch Service (CASS) process is straightforward and takes just seven working days. Just open a new account with your chosen bank, then request a switch through it – you'll usually be asked during the application if you want to switch.

"Lots of people are doing it, you have to be careful, you have to do it right, but yeah it’s worth doing," Mr Lewis said. “If you are going to do it, one of the ways they do it is they have a ‘mule’ account. Which is where they set up a separate account just for switching bank accounts."

As long as you're approved by each bank that you apply for an account with, you can have as many current accounts as you like.