NatWest Premier Switching Offer Pays £500 — But Read the Small Print

NatWest‘s Premier switching offer is paying a £500 welcome bonus to eligible new customers who transfer their current account, making it one of the richer incentives in the affluent banking segment. The catch is the eligibility bar is set deliberately high, and the conditions attached to the bonus go beyond what most headline comparisons reveal.

What the NatWest Premier switching offer actually requires

To qualify, applicants must meet at least one of three financial thresholds: a minimum annual income of £100,000 (or £120,000 for a joint account), savings or investments of at least £100,000, or a NatWest mortgage of at least £500,000. Existing NatWest current account holders as of 2 September are excluded, as are those who have previously redeemed a NatWest switching incentive.

The switch itself must be completed through the Current Account Switch Service (CASS). Beyond that, switchers must deposit at least £15,000 into the Premier account within 90 days of opening, with each payment remaining in the account for a minimum of 24 hours. There is also an app login requirement: customers must log into the NatWest mobile app within those same 90 days. The £500 bonus is then paid within 30 calendar days of all conditions being met, according to the NatWest Group press release.

The offer launched on 2 September and has no fixed end date, though NatWest reserves the right to withdraw it at any point.

Three tiers, three fee levels — and an upgrade option

The Premier range runs across three tiers. The entry-level Premier Select carries no monthly fee and offers fee-free foreign currency transactions and interest-free arranged overdrafts up to £500. The Premier Reward account costs £2 a month and adds up to £9 a month in rewards (subject to paying at least two direct debits of at least £4.50 each per month), plus £1 a month for logging into the mobile app and at least 1% cashback at selected retailers.

Premier Reward Black sits at the top of the range at £36 a month, rising to £39 a month from 1 October. It adds airport lounge access, travel insurance, mobile phone insurance, breakdown cover, 25% cashback on concert and show tickets, cinema discounts, a 24/7 concierge service, no foreign transaction fees on debit card purchases, and up to £10 a month in Rewards.

Customers who start on one of the lower tiers can upgrade to Premier Reward Black and remain eligible for the £500 bonus, provided they satisfy all switching conditions within 90 days of their original switch date.

Across all tiers, new customers receive tailored digital guidance and personal support during their first 90 days. They also gain access to ‘Premier Perspectives’, a content hub covering investing, tax planning and retirement through articles, videos and expert commentary. A ‘Savings Round Ups’ feature, which rounds up debit card purchases to build savings automatically, is also included.

How it compares with rivals and NatWest’s own standard accounts

The Premier offer sits well above NatWest’s standard switching incentive. The bank’s non-Premier Select and Reward accounts currently offer £200 to switchers, with a 60-day window to meet the pay-in requirement rather than 90 days. The Premier bonus is 2.5 times that figure, but the income and asset thresholds mean most retail customers will not qualify.

Among direct competitors, HSBC is also offering a £500 welcome bonus to switchers opening a Premier Account, which includes free travel insurance, preferential loan rates and digital GP appointments at no monthly fee — a meaningful structural difference from NatWest’s tiered approach.

Caitlyn Eastell, personal finance analyst at Moneyfacts, said the NatWest incentive ‘should be viewed as a sweetener rather than the main reason to switch. Customers should compare the ongoing benefits, eligibility requirements and any fees against their existing bank.’

That framing holds. At £36 a month (soon £39), the Premier Reward Black tier costs £432 to £468 annually. The £500 bonus covers roughly a year’s subscription in the first year, after which the account must justify itself on its own merits. Separately, NatWest has since launched a distinct ‘Premier Switch and Save’ promotion offering up to £1,000 in combined incentives for switchers who also deposit £100,000 or more into a Flexible Saver, though that is a separate offer with different conditions.

For qualifying customers already weighing a move, the fee increase on Premier Reward Black — effective 1 October — is the more immediate timing trigger.