Saving money is a hot topic at the moment and quite rightly so. The cost of virtually everything is going up with energy bills taking a huge slice of every households income.
So when an additional, and seemingly easy way of 'earning' extra cash comes along it is worth looking in to. This is exactly what Kate Lally has done.
Turning to financial guru Martin Lewis' advice she decided to try out, what turned out to be a five-minute tip. It bagged her a whopping £125.
READ MORE: Martin Lewis's urgent advice to every E.On and British Gas customer
Martin Lewis regularly offers tips and advice on how to save or earn extra cash. Championing the consumer, he appears on ITV's Martin Lewis Money Show and updates the MoneySavingExpert website with tips and tricks. Like many others, Kate admits: "I often check out Martin Lewis' tips and tricks to see if there's more I could be doing to look after the pennies."
After reading about "bribes" for a banking switch, Kate, a reporter from our sister site, Liverpool Echo, decided to switch her bank account to earn some fee cash. Leaving Santander to join the Halifax Reward current account she swooped £125.
Kate said: "I opted for the Halifax Reward account, as it offered £125 bonus for opening the account. On top of this, if you pay in £1,500 each month (for me this is covered by my wages), you can also receive a monthly reward of either £5, a cinema ticket, digital magazines or movie rentals. I chose the £5 per month, meaning if nothing changes I will get an extra £60 cash from Halifax this year, too."
This is the first time that Kate has switched banks since opening her first account with Santander at the age of 15. She said: "I'd previously been put off as it seemed like too much of a faff, but it was actually extremely straightforward and took me a matter of minutes.
"I imagine banks have realised a complicated switching process would be unappealing. All I needed to do was tell Halifax of my intention to switch, fill in my details and they notified my old bank on my behalf. They also moved all my direct debits across from the old account. I then had to tell my employer to ensure my wages landed in the right place (this took around 20 seconds)."
How long did it take to pocket the cash? Well, Kate says not very long. She said: "After a few days, I had £125 in my new account - and with my monthly reward, there's more free cash to come. Thanks, Martin!"
