Multiple Santander 5% accounts?

charlieboycat

I know all about their reputation, customer service etc, but....

Doeds anyone have experience of running multiple 5% rate current accounts with Santander?

A friend of mine has just opened and funded 4 in one go - this was done in-branch, where he already had various ex-Abbey accounts. He was told you could have up to 4 (ie. one better than Lloyds Vantage) of the 5% accounts - and that he can satisfy the £1,000 per month credit requirement by circulating money around the accounts (ie. just like Lloyds Vantage).

I'm particularly interested in Santander experience of circulating money - I can't find it on their website, but I had it in mind that it had to be "new to Santander" money to satisfy the £1,000 requirement.

anselld

Multiple Santander accounts must surely be the only thing worse that one Santander account ! :eek:

ses6jwg

Your friend will be in for a shock when they find out that the £1,000 funding must come from either an external account or a cheque.

Source: Santander member of staff.

slush

The OH and I currently have a total of 7 of them open.

You need to keep an eye on the limits to get the best from them, e.g. pay in £1000 monthly right up until account closure (not just the end of the high interest period) and get you head around their Faster Payments, which can be REALLY frustrating at times. Actually, their FPs are frustrating at ALL times!

You need to FP out your £1000 in small payments so that you keep earning interest on it (i.e. not lost out there in a BACS cyberspace) and so that you can FP in your externally funded min of £1000 per month.

I expect someone will argue that its not worth it for the extra interest...But when interest rates are so bad, every percentage point helps. You just need to get yourself organised....

Wasteofspace

A transfer between your own Santander accounts will be instant.

As to the OP, you can chance your luck but as Ses6jwg says they'll probably revoke the offer if they see you just moving money between your own accounts. Also setting up a bunch of identical accounts all at the same time runs the risk of a fraud block on all your accounts, which is another headache you'd have to deal with.

mrchagle

ses6jwg wrote: »

Your friend will be in for a shock when they find out that the £1,000 funding must come from either an external account or a cheque.

Is this true? I have three Santander accounts just need them for the interest? I just have a bill payment from one to the other, it does have to be external accounts?

charlieboycat

Thanks for the replies.

ses6jwg wrote: »

Your friend will be in for a shock when they find out that the £1,000 funding must come from either an external account or a cheque.

Source: Santander member of staff.

But .. Can one trust anything said by a Santander staff member? My mate had his 4 accounts opened by a branch manager - who told him transfers between accounts were ok to fund the £1,000. So one staff member says one thing - one another. Which is correct?

It appears slush hasn't taken the risk and is externally funding each account - I was hoping someone here had tried funding multiple accounts via internal transfer and could say with certainty that it did/did not work. Anyone ... ?

slush

charlieboycat wrote: »

It appears slush hasn't taken the risk and is externally funding each account - I was hoping someone here had tried funding multiple accounts via internal transfer and could say with certainty that it did/did not work. Anyone ... ?

The majority of our accounts were previous A&L accounts. We originally plumped for these because they required half as much in monthly funding. The A&L T&C did (and still do) say the the funding MUST be external. And that they will impose an under funding charge if these terms are not fulfilled. As these charges would quickly wipe out some of the small advantage compaired to our feeder accounts (Vantage) we have played strictly by their T&C and therefore, externally funded.

Your question prompted me to look closer at the Santander T&C, and they are surprisingly not the same.

So I'd like to hear if anyone is internally funding these successfully.

Without such confirmation, perhaps I'll try internally funding one of them and see what results. They don't have an under funding charge and so it would be just a loss of interest that month... unless I've missed something somewhere.

ses6jwg

I'm telling you, the funds must come from an external account or a cheque.

charlieboycat

ses6jwg wrote: »

I'm telling you, the funds must come from an external account or a cheque.

As I said in my original post - that was my gut feeling. But as slush says, it isn't in the T&C (unlike the ex A&L accounts). I've had both A&L and Abbey 5%ers in the past, but only one at a time and always funded externally. Do you have any evidence/experience to back up your certainty that ex-Abbey accounts can be funded internally? I don't trust anything said by a Staff Member - Lloyds staff often said the same thing about Vantage - which was a load of cobblers.

When you say "or cheque", would that include a cheque drawn on one of the other multiple (ex Abbey type) accounts? Might have some fun in-branch by paying cheques drawn on accounts 1,2,3 and 4 into accounts 2,3,4 and 1 respectively! :rotfl:

pawnbroker_2

slush wrote: »

The majority of our accounts were previous A&L accounts. We originally plumped for these because they required half as much in monthly funding. The A&L T&C did (and still do) say the the funding MUST be external. And that they will impose an under funding charge if these terms are not fulfilled. As these charges would quickly wipe out some of the small advantage compaired to our feeder accounts (Vantage) we have played strictly by their T&C and therefore, externally funded.

Your question prompted me to look closer at the Santander T&C, and they are surprisingly not the same.

So I'd like to hear if anyone is internally funding these successfully.

Without such confirmation, perhaps I'll try internally funding one of them and see what results. They don't have an under funding charge and so it would be just a loss of interest that month... unless I've missed something somewhere.

This issue is covered in today's Sunday Telegraph money section. Based on what is there you can do transfers between accounts, and it appears to imply you don't need external money.

However we are dealing with Santander remember. I tried looking at their T&C's but the PDF files suddenly go black for no reason. As I am not or ever will be a Santander customer I lost interest.