Santander Preferred Current Account.

Chris_J28

So I quite like the look of the Santander Preferred Current Account with its:
- 5% AER (12 months)
- Interest Free Overdraft (12 months)
- £100 cash back intensive

Sounds top dog. (at least for 12 months) However to be accepted for this account you are required to pay in a minimum of £1000 a month. My current average wage is about £950. My question is: What's to stop me withdrawing £50 and then depositing it back in to make up the total. Also do you have to declare & prove your monthly earnings as a prerequisite of setting up the account?

Any info and or advice is much appreciated!

Cheers

Chris

hermante

Chris_J28 wrote: »

So I quite like the look of the Santander Preferred Current Account with its:
- 5% AER (12 months)
- Interest Free Overdraft (12 months)
- £100 cash back intensive

Sounds top dog. (at least for 12 months) However to be accepted for this account you are required to pay in a minimum of £1000 a month. My current average wage is about £950. My question is: What's to stop me withdrawing £50 and then depositing it back in to make up the total. Also do you have to declare & prove your monthly earnings as a prerequisite of setting up the account?

Any info and or advice is much appreciated!

Cheers

Chris

Nothing stops you from doing that. Though it would be better if you didn't. Just move £50 from your old bank account. You'll need to take the £1000 out anyway as it won't earn any interest once you have deposited £2500.

I didn't have to provide proof of income.

Read other messages on this forum about Santander's customer service before you make a final decision - i.e. don't use it for anything crucial, just as a place to keep some money for a while, grocery shopping, etc.

AbbeyDhabi

Chris_J28 wrote: »

So I quite like the look of the Santander Preferred Current Account with its:
- 5% AER (12 months)
- Interest Free Overdraft (12 months)
- £100 cash back intensive

Sounds top dog. (at least for 12 months) However to be accepted for this account you are required to pay in a minimum of £1000 a month. My current average wage is about £950. My question is: What's to stop me withdrawing £50 and then depositing it back in to make up the total. Also do you have to declare & prove your monthly earnings as a prerequisite of setting up the account?

Any info and or advice is much appreciated!

Cheers

Chris

Yes. Run for the hills.

As long as your prepared for huge amounts of hassle, being passed from pillar to post and you don't want anything fancy like access to your money, go for it.

anselld

Most weeks there is a thread "I knew Satander were bad.... I tried them anyway because I wanted the money/interest.... now I wish I hadnt bothered because they have made my life hell."

Do yourself a big favour and go somewhere (anywhere) else!

slush

I totally agree with the previous comment. The mess that Santander caused with our finances went far beyound just the Santander Bank accounts, affecting accounts held elsewhere.

Their customer service is unbelievably bad.

Like the orginal poster, we were just using the Santander Preferred In Credit accounts (and rotating funds) to get the 5%.

But believe me, the 5% was not worth the headache of trying to clear up Santander's errors!

my advice, for what its worth, is to have nothing to do with Santander banking.

pmduk

There must be dozens of threads on here about these cowboys. You would yourself a great service by avoiding santander.

ButterflyBee

I just happend to stumble on to your posting and have immediatley cancelled the migration from Halifax! who I have had no problem with since day one.

I must say that playing russian roulette with my credit scoring is not an option after the last 4 years of sweat and tears to get back to black and out of red!

Santander do have the worst reputation according to all reviews.

Chris_J28

Thanks guys, I'll give them a miss.

exel1966

Chris_J28 wrote: »

Thanks guys, I'll give them a miss.

Then you'll miss out on what for me was a very easy Free £155, a current account paying 5.00% and access to a regular saver paying 5.00%.

PS. I loathe Santander, but it's silly to cut your nose to spite your face !

ButterflyBee

This is true! and quite frankly I can't afford to miss out on £100.00 gifted by a bank. I have after a great amount of considderation taken the plundge and continued with the switch.

Waiting to exhale when the $100.00 is paid and fingers crossed there will be no "issues" in the transactions.

10_66

ButterflyBee wrote: »

I just happend to stumble on to your posting and have immediatley cancelled the migration from Halifax! who I have had no problem with since day one.

I must say that playing russian roulette with my credit scoring is not an option after the last 4 years of sweat and tears to get back to black and out of red!

Santander do have the worst reputation according to all reviews.

For future reference, why don't you keep an unused bank account open which you can use to "switch" accounts in the future? I do this, so that my main bank account isn't affected, and I can just use the unused bank account to make a "switch" if anyone's offering money back for switching. You need then only set up a couple of standing orders (you could make these payable to your main bank account) so the bank you're "switching" to can use these, and then your main bank account, with its direct debits or standing orders are left alone.