Last Updated on 29 August 2025 by Dan Wilderness
Hello everyone! Today we’re looking at if Premier Banking services are worth it, and actually live up to the promises they offer if you’re lucky enough to be in the position of earning a higher salary!
Once we’d fallen into qualifying and given we were looking to switch bank accounts anyhow, we signed up for these to test these out and reach our own conclusions on if the service was worth it.
Not all UK Banks offer these accounts, but HSBC, Natwest,Barclays and Lloyds are examples of names that do.
As ever – our normal note that we take care with what we write on this site but it is not official “financial advice” and whatever investments and savings you enter need to be right for your circumstances. We always suggest doing your own further research. If you’re in doubt about anything, it’s worth consulting a regulated and reputable financial adviser who can provide tailored advice built for you. Unbiased is a resource that can help you match with an adviser who matches your needs.
What is Premier Banking?
Premier Banking is a current account service which is limited to those with higher incomes, which are set by each individual bank.
So long as you meet the underlying criteria, these are free to use – although may come with requirements like having to pay your salary into the account to continue becoming a member. We’ve included some details of requirements below, but you’ll need to be earning at least £75k for this to be a viable option.
Often, these accounts will have some perks to try and keep you as a customer. These are because the higher income accounts will tend to be bigger revenue generators for the bank and more likely to use a range of their services (like wealth management or mortgage products) and so want to give you an incentive to stay with them.
Premier Banking is effectively a bridge between regular banking, and full on Private Banking arrangements which start in the £1m+ category.
What Benefits can you get with Premier Banking?
Dedicated Service Line – Telephone and In Store
Whilst hopefully you don’t need to call your bank for support that often, all banks will have a dedicated helpline for Premier Customers, which will usually be answered quickly with minimal waiting times. If there’s another service line for Premier Customers in a branch can depends on your local branch.
Is this worth it? Yes, whilst it’s not something you may use very often, you really appreciate it when you do.
Preferential Mortgage Rates
Most banks advertise preferential rates as part of their service – personally, this is what we really signed up for Premier Banking services for as we knew we were looking to buy a house and wanted the best rates possible.
Is this worth it? Very mixed results, you’re looking at a 0.2% mortgage saving on the banks headline rate (and we did find examples of the Premier mortgage rate being worse than the generally advertised one!)
A personal relationship manager
Most Premier Banking services will set you up with a Premier Banking relationship manager, advertised as helping you work through your needs.
Is this worth it? At best, these can be helpful if you have a specific financial goal or would like to understand the differences in potential options. At worst, they become sales calls.
Access to Premier Credit Cards
Premier accounts will usually come with access to an additional range of credit cards, which can have different products or offers to standard cards.
Is this worth it? Largely yes, the credit cards will often have slightly better benefits than the standard account cards. However, you can often still do better with other cards – for instance the American Express cards found in our round of the best UK Rewards Credit Cards.
Access to Interest Free Overdrafts
All of the main Premier Accounts offer the facility to apply for an interest free overdraft of up to £500, something that is near guaranteed unless you have markers in your credit history.
Is this worth it? For peace of mind on going accidentally overdrawn on a larger than expected bill it’s not a bad thing, although ironically despite being offered more freely, a Premier customer is less likely than others to need this service.
Extra Perks
Premier accounts can come with some other miscellaneous benefits – for instance, you’ll get free worldwide travel insurance with HSBC, money back on using the app with Natwest, the ability to access Avios collection with Barclays and a Private GP service for your family with Lloyds.
Is this worth it? Yes, the insurance for instance is well rated and does save money on an annual policy each year, so a clear benefit. Others depend on how much you’ll make use of them but are clear plusses.
How do I qualify for Premier Banking in the UK?
This is not an exhaustive list, but we’ve summarised the main Premier Banking Accounts in the UK and their requirements here.
(Note: Obviously requirements can change at any time, so do double check yourselves before making any decision.)
HSBC Premier Banking Qualification
HSBC Premier Banking requires an individual annual income or at least £100k or saving/investments with HSBC of £100k or greater.
Barclays Premier Banking Qualification
Barclays Premier Banking also requires an individual annual income of at least £75k, or to have at least £100k in savings and/or investments (you can mix to reach the total) with Barclays.
Natwest Premier Banking Qualification
With Natwest, to be eligible for Premier Banking you’ll need either to meet one of:
- A £100k annual income or £120k joint income
- £500k Mortgage Borrowing
- Or £100k of savings or investments held.
Lloyds Premier Banking Qualification
For Lloyds Premier Banking you’ll need to pay in an income of £5,000 each month, or have £100k of savings or investments with Lloyds.
Comparing the UK’s Premier Banking Services
We’ve put together a comparison table showing some of the key benefits that each UK bank offering a Premier service provides and the relevant qualification criteria.
| Bank | Criteria | Fees | Key Benefits |
| HSBC | £100k+ annual income or saving/investments held | Free if eligible | – Travel Insurance – Fee-free international transfers – Preferential mortgage/loan rates – HSBC health assessment |
| Barclays | £75k+ annual income or £100k+ saving/investments held | Free if eligible | – Preferential mortgage/loan rates – Free Apple TV+ and MLS pass – Monthly Avios paid with Avios Rewards (additional fee) |
| Natwest | £100k+ annual income or £120k+ joint income, or £500k+ mortgage held. | Three variants Premier Select: Free Premier Reward: £2 monthly fee Premier Black: £36 a month | – £10 cashback per month with two direct debits (Reward and Black) – Travel, Mobile Phone and Breakdown Insurance (Black) – Lounge Access (Black) – Concierge Service (Black) |
| Lloyds | £5k+ monthly income or £100k+ saving/investments held | Free eligible, £15 monthly fee if not. | – Mortgage Discount/Bond Interest Boost – Bupa Private GP – 1% cashback per month (up to £10) on debit card spending – Lifestyle benefit (Year of Disney+, 6 cinema tickets etc.) |
As you can see, most benefits are fairly similar with a few variants on a theme – we suggest going with what you might actually use in terms of benefits.
Our experiences of if Premier Banking has been worth it
We think if you qualify it’s worth upgrading your account to Premier Banking, however you shouldn’t have wild expectations of significant differences to your banking (or feel you’re missing out if you don’t qualify for Premier).
I’ve tried out Barclays and HSBC so far. Little changed day to day, and the biggest benefit I’ve felt has been from having the free travel insurance with HSBC – that’s been something I’d need to buy anyhow and the cover is actually very good, so it’s a worthwhile perk that has been effective in keeping me with them.
What I’d really hoped for was more of a discount on our mortgage when reviewing it – but in reality this wasn’t substantial and we actually ended up going with a traditional lender not connected to a Premier account as we were able to improve on the available rate.
I have however found that the phone lines are answered quickly and clearly by someone knowledgeable – however quite frankly, I think that should be your expectation of a bank regardless of customer status.
Where I think there’s a lot of variability is in the Premier client managers and I think it really depends on who you get rather than any bank being better or worse.
My sense is that the banks are trying to move away from these, as contact has been pretty minimal (it took longer than expected with all banks to be assigned one) and to date my experience with them has been that it’s quite a sales based focus trying to push you into add-on products rather than provided me with anything of any value.
What have your experiences been?
We’d love to hear about your own experiences of the UK’s Premier Banking services for good or bad – especially if you’ve had any particularly nice perks!
FAQ’s about UK Premier Banking Services
So long as you meet the qualifying criteria for Premier Banking, all of the banks operating the service are free or have a least a free option.
However most of the banks have some optional add-ons which do come at a cost – for instance Barclays Premier customers can effectively purchase additional Avios for a monthly fee. Natwest have the Premier Rewards Black Account which comes with optional add-ons like insurance, cinema tickets and a concierge service, effectively a choice of a bundled account.
The terms and conditions will always give the right to the banks to transfer you to a suitable regular account if you consistently no longer meet their Premier Banking criteria.
In practice, it seems most have fairly generous grace periods or are not that active about downgrading customers so long as some activity takes place – although HSBC have done a recent mass review of customers who they see as no longer qualifying for HSBC Premier.
Yes, potentially – despite being a premium brand service, some perks like travel insurances, private GP services or extra cashback have real cash benefit and if you’d use these services anyhow, you can save money via getting them from Premier Banking.
And that’s it!
Thank you for reading! You can sign up below to get our new articles delivered to you on a range of financial topics, or remember you can follow our Facebook, Twitter and Instagram pages.
