MSE News: Santander launches cashback current account

Scrounger

The first 'restructure' they should do is to abolish that nasty £2 monthly fee which will be putting off hoards of potential new customers. Same with their credit card.
Then they would clean up. :beer:
Scrounger

ses6jwg

Scrounger wrote: »

The first 'restructure' they should do is to abolish that nasty £2 monthly fee which will be putting off hoards of potential new customers. Same with their credit card.
Then they would clean up. :beer:
Scrounger

The £2 fee is likely there because of all the admin involved in caluclating the cashback.

What you really need to ask is would you prefer to pay no fee with Barclays, HSBC, Natwest et al. and then in return get £0.

Or pay a £2 fee and get £10 cashback.

If you keep a lot of money in your current account like some people do, you could earn up to £60 per month.

innovate

It obviously all depends on what your qualifying Direct Debits amount to - - if you can make more the £24 a year from the cashback, it seems almost a no-brainer (in my case, it is £80 net cashback - - - so for an "investment" of £24, I get 3.3 times £24 back).

Also, if you generally stay in credit, the current account basically has no competition.

Similar applies to the 1-2-3 credit card - - which to me personally is no use at all, not even if it is free, since I don't think it would pay me more in cashback than my existing cashback credit cards. To someone who is on the road a lot, it might be a very good buy.

JuicyJesus

IrishGypsy wrote: »

I'd also warn you to be careful because unless Head Office have sanctioned the forum account, your advice may put you in to a pickle if any of it's wrong (and is then used against you in a formal complaint).

That's why even though I'm a Santander employee, I make sure it's all unofficial and under a disclaimer (see my forum signature).

Personally I would not mention I worked for Santander at all. Even if you don't give any wrong advice, they may have something to say about you representing yourself as an employee on a public forum (even with the disclaimer).

Gurj247

Interesting thread, now I have only recently opened the 123 current account and 123 credit card.
For me personally I only know that my wife has always found them helpful and only opened this account simply for the cash back and I found the Branch staff helpful, particularly when my wife and I wanted a mortgage.

In short I have put my own summary together for what I could (potentially) earn in cash back over the course of the year.

Current Account
1% on water & Council Tax – Council Tax £1160/yr & Water £300/year = £14.6
2% on gas/ electricity – Est £900/yr = £18
3% on mobile phone, landline, broadband, skytv = Est £1,440/yr = £43
Interest – assume £3000 ave over year - £90
Total = £165.6

Credit Card
1% on supermarket – Est £3000/yr - £30
2% on department store – Est £500/yr - £10
3% on petrol station – Est £3000/yr - £90
Total = £70

Total potential Cashback - £295.6
Less Current Account Fee - £24
Less Credit Card Fee - £0 (fee was waived)
Grand Total = £271.6
So in short for every £1 Cost to me i will earn a potential £11.31 in cashback... pretty good return if you ask me.

Things to note:
I will be keeping my main current account (Barclays) for my salary and just transferring the min amount (£500/mth) into the Santander Account on a monthly basis.
I will only have the Credit card so long as it is free, I will most probably cancel it after the first year (if there is a better deal to be had elsewhere).

YorkshireBoy

Gurj247 wrote: »

3% on petrol station – Est £3000/yr - £30.

3% of £3,000 is £90

Gurj247

YorkshireBoy wrote: »

3% of £3,000 is £90

Doh!! Thanks for that Yorkshireboy :T

ylesia

Hi, I have just opened this account, hoping all goes smoothly despite santanders reputation!

Does anyone know how fussy they are with direct debit names? For example my gas supplier is British gas but the dd is called 'SC GAS' - which is not on the list but of course British Gas is.

I suspect that if it doesn't register then hopefully a phone call will sort it out but just wandering if anyone has had any experience of this yet?

vroom3

ylesia wrote: »

Hi, I have just opened this account, hoping all goes smoothly despite santanders reputation!

Does anyone know how fussy they are with direct debit names? For example my gas supplier is British gas but the dd is called 'SC GAS' - which is not on the list but of course British Gas is.

I suspect that if it doesn't register then hopefully a phone call will sort it out but just wandering if anyone has had any experience of this yet?

Its the payment reference number that triggers the cashback not the name - you will be fine....

ylesia

Thank you for that

Another quick question - I am on my phone and can't seem to find any info on the Santander site about how the interest is calculated.


I know it is paid monthly but will it be calculated daily on the closing balance each day? I am thinking of changing all my dd's to come out the day before pay day so to maximise my balance.

It is probably somewhere clear as day and I'm just being blind!