MSE News: Santander launches cashback current account

Ultrasonic

Sailmakers wrote: »

Seriously that joke it getting old and customer service is improving. Show me another that gives

1% back on council tax and Water bills
2% back on utilities
3% back on tv and phone packages

1% balances 1k - 2k
2% balances 2k - 3k
3% balances 3k- 20k.

For a £24 annual fee...

It would be better if the article could have given details of what were taken to be 'low', 'typical' and 'high' bills as the savings could be misleading for some.

If I exclude interest on my account balance (as I believe the table in the article does) then based on my current bills I'd make a LOSS on that account once I'd paid the fee of about £1 a year. If I deliberately kept the account balance above £1000 then I would be in profit, but I'd probably be better off putting more money in a savings acount (and any small difference wouldn't be worth the hassle). To put this in context I will say I live on my own in a two bedroom house, and do my best to keep bills low.

[FWIW I've been a Santander customer for about 10 years, and over the last 18 months they've managed to offer consistantly poor service whenever I actually want them to do something. The only reason I'm not moving is because I'll probably be applying for a mortgage shortly and I think it's probably best to show the stability of a long term current account.]

KTF

I wonder if you can apply for the Preferred account then once you have pocketed the £100, 'upgrade' to this account?

Sceptic001

Thanks, San Insider. Welcome to the forum.

Is that short for San(tander) Insider? If so, be prepared to take some stick from the many Santander-haters on this forum

psychic_teabag

Percy1983 wrote: »

Looks like I will stay with the halifax, between 2 single and a joint account between me and my better half its £180 a year for nothing.

Halifax has no requirement that any bills etc are paid out of the reward account. So can have your Halifax accounts and the Santander one, and get both sets of perks.

But why keep a large balance earning 3% when you can just move it to an esaver to get 3.1%

Ultrasonic

San Insider: would I be right to assume that the 'paid for TV packages' referred to in the article excludes BBC licence fee payments? (BTW if you are a Santander employee then it is very helpful to have you posting here but I believe that you should be registering as a company representative: http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/site/forum-faqs#companies)

In case it is helpful to others I thought I'd post the cashback breakdown for my situation (it may be nationally atypical, but possibly less so for moneysavers):

Council tax: £727 per year @ 1% gives £7.27 cashback.
Water: £264 per year @ 1% gives £2.64 cashback.
Electricy & gas: £540 per year @ 2% gives £10.80 cashback.
Broadband: £77,88 per year @ 3% gives £2.34 cashback.
Landline phone: ~£1 per month by DD* @ 3% gives £0.36 cashback.
Mobile phone: PAYG so no DD.
Paid for TV packages: none.

So that's a total of £23.41 cashback for a £24 annual fee.

Given the 3% weighting it is obviously the lack of expensive TV and mobile phone contracts that particularly makes this a poor deal for me.

*Line rental paid 12 months in advance by credit card (3% cashback as it happens) as it's much cheaper than monthly DD.

innovate

How confident are we that Santander are (cap)able to identify what a council tax, water, utility, TV or phone package is?

How will they identify broadband packages (from suppliers that aren't mainstream - - e.g. Eclipse)?

Does "water" include both, water and sewerage (we pay these to 2 different companies)?

Will the Santander Branch and telephone support staff be trained to understand these sorts of questions?


If I have 20K in the account, and pay in £500 a month, will I get

1. 3% on the full £20K, or
2. 1% on £1K-£2K, 2% on £2K-£3K, 3% on £3K-£20K, nothing for first £1,000, and nothing on anything over £20K, or
3. something else?

Gromitt

Sailmakers wrote: »

Sorry thought this was 'moneysavingexpert.com' not 'I'm sad and get a semi from bashing Santander'. Seriously that joke it getting old and customer service is improving. Show me another that gives

It may be improving, but they are still bottom of the customer service tables, and we keep hearing horror stories.

Sailmakers wrote: »

1% back on council tax and Water bills
2% back on utilities
3% back on tv and phone packages
Seriously this thing will save families so much money...

It would save me about £25 a year considering the £24/year cost, but I just wouldn't be happy with Santander having all my DDs and SOs. From experience with there '123' card, I can imagine them screwing up the above and paying 0% on things you should be getting 3% on/etc.

So for me £25/year just isn't worth it. That's like £2/month.

Lillypad87

The account is made even better value as if you take out the 124 current account staff in branch can waive the first £24 fee on the 123 credit card! Win win win!!!!!!

Lillypad87

innovate wrote: »

How confident are we that Santander are (cap)able to identify what a council tax, water, utility, TV or phone package is?

How will they identify broadband packages (from suppliers that aren't mainstream - - e.g. Eclipse)?

Does "water" include both, water and sewerage (we pay these to 2 different companies)?

Will the Santander Branch and telephone support staff be trained to understand these sorts of questions?


If I have 20K in the account, and pay in £500 a month, will I get

1. 3% on the full £20K, or
2. 1% on £1K-£2K, 2% on £2K-£3K, 3% on £3K-£20K, nothing for first £1,000, and nothing on anything over £20K, or
3. something else?

3% on full 20k

Cook_County

Is the cashback taxable (like the Halifax £5 a month) or tax-free like the cashback on credit cards? 20%, 40% (or 50%) in tax would make a big differerence for many of us.