Nationwide winning current account switching race thanks to generous cash bribes

Nationwide Building Society hoovered up 41,450 more bank account switchers than it lost in the third quarter of 2025, making it the most popular bank to switch to for the fifth quarter in a row.

Over the three month period from July to September 2025 the mutual poached 56,745 switchers from rival banks, new data from the Current Account Switch Service (Cass), which is three months in arrears, shows. 

This was compared to just 11,295 bank account customers who left Nationwide in that period. 

In July, Britain’s biggest mutual passed the milestone of a net 1million customers ditching a rival bank to open a current account with it. 

The switching rush in recent years has been driven by the building society’s generous cash bribes.

> Read more: Our round-up of the best UK bank accounts

Nationwide offered a £175 switching bonus for switchers in both March and September this year, the latter of which is still running. 

It has also given a £100 Fairer Share payment to customers for the past three years in a row. 

Some of its rivals are also offering generous cash incentives. At the moment you can bag up to £200 for switching, with deals from Santander, First Direct and Nationwide available. 

Read This is Money’s guide to the best bank accounts and switching deals here.  

Andrew Hagger, personal finance expert at MoneyComms said: ‘Nationwide has been particularly strong during the last two years, winning a massive 404,207 customers from competitor banks. 

‘This is undoubtedly due to a combination of attractive switching incentives and the possible Fairer Share payments for loyal customers.’

The last Fairer Share payment was made in May 2025 and customers would have needed to have a Nationwide bank account up and running in January to receive it, as well as having qualifying savings or qualifying mortgage. 

Around 1million bank account switches took place in total in the past 12 months, figures from the Cass show. 

October was the busiest month tor bank switches with 128,199, followed by November with 124,650, and December 97,265. This means the fourth quarter of the year was the highest quarterly switching record for the year, with 350,114 switches total. 

John Dentry, product manager at Pay.UK, owner and operator of the Current Account Switch Service, says: ‘That level of activity is a clear sign of a healthy, competitive banking market, where people feel empowered to shop around and move to an account that better meets their needs.’  

Nationwide’s next closest rival in the switching battle, but still a long way off, is digital bank Monzo which saw a net 9,934 switches between July and September 2025.

This was the third quarter in a row that Monzo featured in the top three. The quarter before that, between April and June 2025, Monzo gained a net 8,246 switching customers. 

Between January and March, Monzo gained 8,550 more customers than it lost. This was the first time a digital bank was in the top three banks for switching gains.

It has outshone its challenger rivals JP Morgan Chase, which lost 7,623 more customers than it gained and Starling Bank which was down 1,613 between July and September 2025. 

NatWest saw 8,731 net switchers and TSB gained 4,690 more customers than it lost, while HSBC, RBS, Danske and Triodos gained 6,357 net switching customers between them. 

Santander, Halifax and Chase were the big losers, with a net 19,989, 17,341 and 7,623 switchers leaving using the Cass.