SANTANDER customers can soon earn up to £250 if your friends switch their accounts to the bank.

From Monday, customers with the bank will receive a £50 Amazon gift card if they successfully refer a friend while their friends will receive the same amount too.

You can refer a total of five friends until the offer ends on May 18.

To do so you'll need to fill in some details on Santander's website to receive codes, which you can then share with your friends and family.

Those who want to switch then have until June 18 to do it and claim the vouchers for both of you.

The offer is open to all Santander customers whose referral leads to a friend switching to a qualifying Santander UK account through the Current Account Switch Service.

Accounts which qualify for the refer-a-friend offer include the 1|2|3 Current Account, 1|2|3 Lite account, Everyday Current Account, Select and Private Current Accounts.

Hetal Parmar, head of banking and savings at Santander, said: "It’s important that people shop around for a bank account that can give them good ongoing value and the seven-day Current Account Switch Service makes switching easy.

"Our Refer a Friend offer is a thank you to customers on top of the existing benefits they get with our current accounts, such as cashback on household bills, interest on balances and cashback on debit card spending."

The offer by Santander may seem like a good deal, but it's easily beaten by Nationwide which offers £100 in cash for customers who convince their friends to switch.

Your friends will also receive £100 for switching.

Similar to Santander's new offer, this scheme lets you refer five friends per year, which means you can earn a whopping £500 just by making your friends switch bank account.

The offer requires your friend to switch current account including two direct debits, but there's currently no end-date to the offer.

If you don't have enough friends who are looking to switch bank accounts, you can use offers by other banks and switch account yourself. These include:

HSBC Advance: New customers will receive £150 in the first year, plus another £50 after one year.

But you can also get an extra £25 if you sign up via consumer website MoneySavingExpert.

You’ll also be eligible to get HSBC’s five per cent regular savings account.

But you’ll need to pay in £1,750 per month - or £10,500 every six months - so consider whether you’ll be able to meet this criteria before switching.

If you can’t afford it, HSBC’s Bank Account offers £75 to switch and has a lower £500 monthly pay-in.

First Direct: The online-only bank gives new customers a bonus of £100, but once again you can get an extra £25 if you sign up via MoneySavingExpert.

You’ll also get a £250 zero per cent overdraft, and can open a linked five per cent regular saver.

But you need to pay in a minimum of £1,000 to avoid a monthly £10 fee.

If you don't like the bank and decide to leave within six months, you'll get £100 in compensation.

Halifax Reward: Switch to the Halifax Reward account and you'll get £50 paid before your switch completes, and another £85 after six months if you pay in £1,500 per month, use your debit card at least once and opt for online banking.

You can also get ongoing rewards of £2 a month if you pay in at least £750 each month, remain in credit, and pay out at least two direct debits.

M&S Bank Current Account: New switchers receive a £100 M&S gift card, with no minimum pay-in, plus reward points when you shop in M&S.

You also get a £100 zero per cent overdraft and access to a linked five per cent regular saver.

If you pay in £1,250 per month and keep four direct debits active in the first year, you’ll get another £80 gift card.

Santander is offering £1,000 to first-time buyers who take out a mortgage with the bank.

It is also doing a 27 month balance transfer card with no fee to help clear your debts.

Last year, the bank also made a big change to payments to help stop payment scams.