Free £200 bank switch bonus and January flight sales!

Free £200 bank switch bonus, January flight sales, annual Merlin pass sale and boosted January sales - these are our Money Saving Expert Martin Lewis’ Quick Deals.

Remember, deals can change quickly, even while I’m on the programme so always double-check the terms and conditions before spending. Plus, while I hope these deals will save you cash, don’t spend if you can’t afford it, don’t need it, or won’t use it.

Bank price war – get up to £200 free

The bank switching price war is reheating – and with money tight it’s worth considering. Switching takes just seven working days, the new bank closes your old account and moves all direct debits, standing orders and payments, plus the free cash can be paid within a month of switching – for the vast majority it’s a simple process. All credit-check when you apply. For a full rundown see ‘Martin’s Top Pick Bank Accounts’ guide yet in brief (all have criteria such as ‘a need to have a number of direct debits etc' – so do check).

HSBC newbies switching to the HSBC Advance account get £150 then £50 more if you’re still with it after a year. Plus you get access to a linked 5% regular savings account where you can put up to £250/mth for one year. Some also get a 6mth 0% overdraft (depending on credit score you’ll either get the full 6mths or not get one at all). The minimum pay in (i.e. getting your salary in) is a hefty £1,750+/mth, equivalent to a salary of £26,100.

First Direct’s won all my customer service polls for seven years, and currently gives switchers a free £100 (more via some sites). You’ll need to pay in £1,000/mth to get the cash and keep the account free - if not, it's £10/mth. You'll get the cash within 28 working days of your first pay-in. Plus you get access to its 5% fixed regular saver, and some get a £250 0% overdraft.

M&S Bank gives new switchers a £125 M&S gift card (within a month of switching, min two direct debits), and for the first year it'll add another £5/mth to it as long as you pay in £1,000/mth. It also offers a 5% fixed regular savings account and to some, a £100 0% overdraft.

January flight sales

Just a heads up that if you’re looking to book flights, there are a number of big airline sales on at the moment for long haul Including BA and Virgin. And this tends to be a good time to book. For the US do also look at new routes from budget airline Norwegian airlines where you can get a direct Gatwick-New York JFK return flight for £245 and a £320 Gatwick-Orlando return.

For short haul, while Easyjet has up to 20% off flights – often deals come through the year. If you are looking in general the best way to compare is to use a couple of comparison sites, my top picks are Kayak (allows you to filter based on card/baggage fees), Skyscanner (particularly strong coverage of budget flights) and Momondo (helpful insights such as cheapest airport to fly from/to).

£129 annual Merlin pass

Right now you can get an annual Merlin pass for £129, rather than the normal £179, which it’ll rise to on Monday 12 February. The pass gets unlimited visits to 32 attractions, including Legoland, Thorpe Park, Madame Tussauds and Blackpool Tower. If you're buying passes for between three and five people you can qualify for its ‘family rate’ of £109 per pass (normally £139 – the discount is applied automatically online). As a rough rule of thumb you need to be visiting more than five times in the year for it to beat using 2for1 vouchers that are available.

Boosted January sales

For the past few years the traditional January sales have started earlier and earlier – with some starting on Christmas Eve. Now even by the first week of January, we’re seeing many stores increasing discounts on the remaining sales stock. Here’s a round up of the boosted and predicted to be boosted January sales. Yet of course there’s no guarantee and stocks could go – so it’s just a point of seeing what you can get.

ASOS is now up to 70% off, Debenhams up to 70% off, H&M up to 60% off, Gap up to 60% off (likely to rise to 70% soon). I’m expecting M&S, Topshop and Topman to increase their sales from up to 50% to up to 70% soon based on previous years.