Upgrading to Santander Zero - do I get another 5% for 12 months

firsttimestudent

Hi,

I realise with my ISA addition this year, I will have enough savings to qualify for the Santander Zero Current Account.

I already hold the A&L Premium Direct Current Account, the 5% (on first 2500 pounds) ends in June 2011.

i) If I were to upgrade my A&L account to their Santander Zero account this June, will I get another 12 months of 5%? Or since it's an 'old account', I'll be stuck with the 1%?

ii) Instead of upgrading, can I open a new Santander Zero current account without closing down my current A&L PDCA? Will the branch people be happy to do so?

Thanks!!

gsmmad

you would end up with 5% from the day the account is converted into a zero current acc.

Apart from this you need to have your savings with them for at least 3 months and be paying £1000 each month to qualify for the zero current account. This is the case if you wanted to upgrade the existing one.
If you want to open a new only you would need to have 10k in savings for 3 months and also you will need to switch a current account from another provider to qualify, the account will need to have 2 DD's or Standing orders. If you don't have a account with the 2 DD/SO then you can just go create 2 very small standing orders with another bank and that will be sufficient.

firsttimestudent

Thanks Gsmmad.

i. In terms of savings for at least 3 months - do you mean 3 months after the 10k threshold is reached, or as long as the savings account itself has been open for 3 months (but not necessarily has £10k in it for the ENTIRE 3 months)?

ii. Do you know if Upgrading involves a credit search?

Thanks again for your answers!

gsmmad

Firsttimestudent, in terms of the 10k savings. It would have to be from the date it hit 10k for 3 months, so once you have passed that threshold.

Upgrading is a simple account transfer which does not involve a credit search. You can always get them to try upgrading for you in branch, it only has 2 decisions, approve or decline, which makes no difference to your credit history or your history with santander.


hope this helps, thanks

ses6jwg

gsmmad is spot on you need to have held the 10k in savings with santander for 3 months in whatever form that takes.

also your account needs to have been funded with £1k per month for the last 3 months

you earn 5% from the day the account is upgraded and there is no credit search

adindas

If people already get a/c with Santander which earn 5% interest up to £2500.00 (e.g. PICR) , they will not be allowed you to have Santander Zero. The only way to do that is by upgrading from PICR to Santander Zero. So yo will loose your PICR a/c

I have called them in several occasions and I always get the same answer from several different persons.

Is somebady manage to open a new Santander Zero although and already has a/c with Santander which earn 5% interest ???? If other people could confirm this it could be great.

I think the reason why they do not allow people to do this, because they try to avoid people earn 5% interest just by juggling £1000.00 between the two a/c and take advantage of 5% interest rate for a current a/c.

gsmmad wrote: »

you would end up with 5% from the day the account is converted into a zero current acc.

Apart from this you need to have your savings with them for at least 3 months and be paying £1000 each month to qualify for the zero current account. This is the case if you wanted to upgrade the existing one.
If you want to open a new only you would need to have 10k in savings for 3 months and also you will need to switch a current account from another provider to qualify, the account will need to have 2 DD's or Standing orders. If you don't have a account with the 2 DD/SO then you can just go create 2 very small standing orders with another bank and that will be sufficient.

intalex

adindas wrote: »

If people already get a/c with Santander which earn 5% interest up to £2500.00 (e.g. PICR) , they will not be allowed you to have Santander Zero. The only way to do that is by upgrading from PICR to Santander Zero. So yo will loose your PICR a/c

I have a PICR which will soon be 12 months old (i.e. the 5% rate will disappear), and was therefore wondering if an upgrade to the zero account would reset the clock for 5%, i.e. another 12 months???

I've just signed up for the Loyalty Flexible ISA and one of the requirements is to keep depositing £1000 each month to a current account, so would be good if that current account was "still" paying 5% for the next 12 months or so.

firsttimestudent

Intalex, it seems like you DO get another 12 months, according to Gsmmad and Adindas.

How did you open your Loyalty Flexible ISA? Did you do it in branch or over the phone? If over the phone, did u get it opened immediately, or do u still have to wait for documents before it becomes active?

gsmmad

You can open a zero account if you already have a account getting the 5%. Just pop into a store and do it, to open a zero account from scratch you must do a switch from a different bank.

You can have as many account as you like, there is no limit. Currently I myself have 2 preferred accounts, one reward and one zero. All earning 5% interest with 10k split between them. I transfer 1000k through them using my online banking and i get around 30-35 quid interest each month after tax.

intalex

firsttimestudent wrote: »

How did you open your Loyalty Flexible ISA? Did you do it in branch or over the phone? If over the phone, did u get it opened immediately, or do u still have to wait for documents before it becomes active?

Over the phone, appeared with a zero balance on my online banking on the same day, within hours!

adindas

Yes it will. That is the main reason why I do not want to upgrade my PICR to Santander Zero now. I will wait until July, where my interest rate start to drop.

intalex wrote: »

If an upgrade to the zero account would reset the clock for 5%, i.e. another 12 months???