Switch bonuses pay for time spent on paperwork, and students often have the time. If you’re 18 or over and have a current account to switch from, you can do most of the offers on the market.
There are two catches. The bonus has to go into an ordinary current account, because student accounts are excluded. And switching your student account away closes it.
Keep your student account
A full switch closes the account you switch from. If that’s your student account, you lose its interest-free overdraft, and anything you owe on it has to be paid back or covered by the new bank first.
The usual way round it is a
second account. Open a free ordinary current account, set up the direct debits the bonus wants on it, and switch that one. Your student account stays as it is.
Open a spare account and switch that one, so your student account and its overdraft stay put.
The pay-in
Most offers want money paid in within a month or two. As of 4 October 2026 that ranges from £1,000 at first direct, Nationwide and Danske to £2,000 at HSBC. NatWest and RBS want £1,250, and Santander wants £1,500.
At most banks the money only has to arrive, so the same £1,000 can be paid in, counted and moved back out. Check each bank’s wording on the day, because some want it kept there.
Barclays wants £2,000 paid in as a salary, a pension or a transfer from a UK business account, so most students can’t do it until they start work.
What we do about it
Bank Switcher plans every switch around a spare account and names the pay-in for each bank on its step, so you know what you need before you apply. This is general information and isn’t financial advice.