MSE News: Santander launches cashback current account

Billy_Boy

Childintime wrote: »

I am an existing Santander customer who opened a new 123 account via topcashback, and then arranged the DD transfers etc myself.

My £55 cashback has now been confirmed!

:T

Ditto -- but still time for things to go wrong. Looked at date payable and it says 31 August.

Midzone

Childintime wrote: »

I am an existing Santander customer who opened a new 123 account via topcashback, and then arranged the DD transfers etc myself.

My £55 cashback has now been confirmed!

:T

Nothing from Quidco yet!

cptncanary

Midzone wrote: »

Nothing from Quidco yet!

My TopCashBack is confirmed, but no chickens being counted yet

halsteadk

philbostavros wrote: »

The only downside I could see was that we would loose the free travel insurance provided by our existing Premier a/c (old legacy A&L account).

Sorry to pick up a side issue here, but I too had an old A&L account with travel insurance but haven't had any info about this for the last year or two. I assumed it packed in at the point my account became a Santander Zero Account (which as far as I can remember was the default arrangement and happened automatically). Do you still get any sort of mailing that shows you have this insurance - if not, how do you know you still have it anyway?

shellylovesshopping

halsteadk wrote: »

Sorry to pick up a side issue here, but I too had an old A&L account with travel insurance but haven't had any info about this for the last year or two. I assumed it packed in at the point my account became a Santander Zero Account (which as far as I can remember was the default arrangement and happened automatically). Do you still get any sort of mailing that shows you have this insurance - if not, how do you know you still have it anyway?

The zero account is completely different to the old premier account. It has different benefits on overdraft rates and usage abroad but does not come with any insurances. Those would have stopped when you chose to change your account to the zero account.

oscarhugo

Way-hay! My £55 and £20 amounts have now confirmed on Quidco!

royal23

i have the santander ZERO account (and also ZERO credit card).
this product has been discontinued for new customers, but perhaps some of here have it?

the MAIN benefit for me with the zero account is the free debit card use abroad (cash withdrawal as well as store purchases) and online shopping in foreign currency.

so it would lose this benefit. and i travel abroad frequently (mainly within europe, sometimes to the US).

i think without zero, for every £100 i withdraw in foreign currency it costs about £4 or something, if i remember correctly before i had the zero account. does anyone have a figure?

so let's say for abroad/foreign currency use, i spend/withraw £1000 a year. how much does that cost me with the 123 account?
because with zero account it's totally free...

i went to the branch yesterday (for a different reason) and a branch employee suggested that i'd simply keep my zero credit card and use that for spending/withdrawals... hmm that's a good option i guess? though i don't like taking cash out with my credit card, even with the zero, i think it comes with charges?

SantEmp

Anthorn wrote: »

I'm with Santander actually in the former Alliance & Leicester stream but I'm not tempted to change to the 123 current account: Taking into account the £2 per month / £24 per year fee I would make perhaps 35p per year. Also if I changed accounts I would possibly lose my ability to make card withdrawals at the post office but that depends on whether a new debit card is issued with different first six digits. Lastly I would never keep £1000 minimum in my current account to get the measly 1.0% interest offered and keeping £2,000 or £3,000 in there would be more unlikely than finding a gold nugget stuck to the sole of my shoe.

Well, it's not an account that works for everyone. I've decided to stick with my preferred account until the year's free overdraft expires and maybe then take on the 123.

It's genuinely a fantastic account for most people though. We've been assured on numerous occasions that the cashback percentages are for the life of the product and that the only thing that's likely to change is an increase in the interest rates one day. As a previous poster mentions, you'll never be tied into it so it wouldn't be too much of a problem even if they did decide to go back on their word.

Be careful with the 123 credit card though, you do get the first year free if you take the account, but ONLY if there's a linked direct debit to your 123 current account and only if you do it before the end of June.

SantEmp

Alchad wrote: »

Hi,

Not sure if this is the right place to post this question, but...

We have had a joint Abbey/Santander current and credit accounts for nearly 20 years, I recently applied online for a 123 account (can't remember now but think I asked to change the existing current account into the 123 account).

Anyway I have just received a letter saying they have refused the application and mentioned an Experian credit report. Now we own our own house, have no mortgage, no loans of any form whatsoever, and both have very good pensions.

So I'm just completely baffled as to why the application could be refused. My other half's initial reaction (and mine) is to move her existing ISA and close all the accounts, but just wondered if anyone could suggest any logical reason as to why the application was refused. As. I said I thought it was just literally a case of changing the existing joint Santander current account into a 123 account, but obviously not.

Thank you

I'd recommend going into a branch and transferring your account there. I've done nearly 100 since the account was launched and haven't had a single one decline yet. New accounts often do (depending on score) but every transfer goes through with no worries. You also get the benefit of not needing to transfer the DDs and you keep your existing card/chequebook etc...

Good luck!

Childintime

SantEmp wrote: »

It's genuinely a fantastic account for most people though. We've been assured on numerous occasions that the cashback percentages are for the life of the product and that the only thing that's likely to change is an increase in the interest rates one day.

So no increase in fees then. Lol.