Earning money from current accounts.

wildest_jjk

Hey guys,

I have just read an article that talks about the best ways of making money with current accounts. It says you need £2500 first of all. £1500 of that would go into a Santander current account so that interest could be earned on it over the year. After 14 weeks you get paid £100 if it is your only account with them.

Then you open up a Halifax current account and use the spare £1000 to float between this and the Santander each month. Then it talks about after a year has passed the Santander account stops paying interest so it is worth switching to first direct. This will give £100 for switching.

So is this the best way at the moment? Any other suggestions?

Thanks

psychic_teabag

The £2500 would spend most of its time in Santander. Rather than "floating" between the two accounts, you would move it briefly to Halifax then immediately back out again, since it doesn't earn any interest while at Halifax.

The downside is that you have your current account with Santander, who do not have the best record for reliability and customer service.

According to Martin's banking article at http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/banking/compare-best-bank-accounts FirstDirect don't pay interest on a current account. If that's the case, not quite sure why you'd choose to switch to them after a year. But things may have changed in a year.

mgarl10024

You'd be best to put all £2500 in the Santander account, and then as described above just bounce £1000 to Halifax there and back in a day.

If you use a cashback site, you can also get something for signing up for the Santander account. TBC is offering £75 atm, and you can have two Santander accounts per customer. Be quick as it ends this week.

Do bear in mind that you must *externally* fund the Santander accounts with £1000 each month (which could be bouncing between them and Halifax).

wildest_jjk

Thanks for the responses. The idea of switching to the first direct is because the interest from santander stops after a year. And just by switching to first direct they give £100 cash back.

Would the cash back going through a website be on top of the banks cash back? Where does it say you can have two Santander accounts?

Lastly can you have more than one Halifax?

Thanks

mgarl10024

wildest_jjk wrote: »

Would the cash back going through a website be on top of the banks cash back?

Should be. I've a TCB claim in for £75, and am hoping Santander coughs up the £100 in a few weeks time. Can't say for certain, but would be surprised if not.

wildest_jjk wrote: »

Where does it say you can have two Santander accounts?

http://www.santander.co.uk/csgs/Satellite?appID=abbey.internet.Abbeycom&c=DocumentoGS&canal=CABBEYCOM&cid=1237885742301&empr=Abbeycom&leng=en_GB&pagename=Abbeycom%2FDocumentoGS%2FDocumentoGSPreview
Condition L4

wildest_jjk

For the £100 cashback from Santander would this not only be for the first account? It talks about it in the cashback eligibility on their site. I did post a link but I am not allowed to at the moment.

From what I can see you are right about the number of accounts so I presume you can still get the 5% for both maybe just not the cashback?

Thanks

mgarl10024

wildest_jjk wrote: »

From what I can see you are right about the number of accounts so I presume you can still get the 5% for both maybe just not the cashback?

So,
£100 for *transferring* your account via the switcher service. If you have two accounts to switch, 2x£100. (I think). If you only switch one, and open another, then just one £100.
TopCashback - for each.
5% AER (~4.89%) on both, upto £2500.

wildest_jjk

mgarl10024 wrote: »

So,
£100 for *transferring* your account via the switcher service. If you have two accounts to switch, 2x£100. (I think). If you only switch one, and open another, then just one £100.
TopCashback - for each.
5% AER (~4.89%) on both, upto £2500.

Thanks for the response. So for me I only have one current account at the moment. So the overall process would be:

Move my main account to Santander and put £2500 into it. Then I would get:

£100 - Santander cashback
£75.75 - TCB
5% interest for a year - Santander

Move £1000 from the Santander for a day or something to the Halifax? And get:

£5 a month - Halifax

Then I have the option of opening up another Santander account but would only get the interest for it and would need another £2500 to leave in it?

Finally once the year is over for the Santander account I can switch to first direct just to get:

£100 cashback - First Direct

There are some questions in there as well, sorry if it is confusing just trying to make sense of all this!

Thanks

psychic_teabag

wildest_jjk wrote: »

Thanks for the responses. The idea of switching to the first direct is because the interest from santander stops after a year. And just by switching to first direct they give £100 cash back.

Sure. But they might not still be doing it in a year. Or there might be better offers.
So yes, switch after a year. But don't commit yourself to First Direct now.

psychic_teabag

wildest_jjk wrote: »

Lastly can you have more than one Halifax?

When it was first launched, you could have three ! But they quickly wised up, so now it's only one each, though you can additionally have a joint account. (So a couple can have three between them.) But a joint current account is not something to enter into lightly, since it ties financial affairs together.

mgarl10024

wildest_jjk wrote: »

Then I have the option of opening up another Santander account but would only get the interest for it and would need another £2500 to leave in it?

Yep.
If you sign up through TopCashBack you might get a second £75.
Can't hurt to try.