MSE News: Santander launches cashback current account

ffacoffipawb

ses6jwg wrote: »

why dont you just open a new 123 account and transfer your council tax, water, gas electric and comms dds to that?

You can keep your zero account just leave 2 direct debits e.g. for insurances or charities on there and once a month shove 1k in there and back out again. you could even do it via standing order

Effectively what I've done.

Main account with, and remaining with, firstdirect. All cashback DD's moved to Santander and a £500 S/O set up. Other DD's stay at firstdirect.

Cashback will cover the £2 monthly fees (plus I got £55 from Quidco for opening the account).

Plus 3% interest on up to £20k.

What's not to like!

EDIT: Cashback should be about £5 a month so a nice profit there.

Ultrasonic

POPPYOSCAR wrote: »

Account is a new account, nothing transferred, set it up purely as a savings account. Still have bank accounts with other banks.Set it up with a large amount of money from an account that matured.
Told to set up 2 direct debits and pay in £500 per month which I have done.

I'm confused. If you're not going to transfer all of your relevent direct debits to actually earn cashback then aren't you bound to lose money once the £2 per month fee has been taken? You could earn exactly the same 3% interest rate with Santander's own eSaver account. This account wouldn't require you to transfer in a certain amount every month, or indeed keep a balance above £3k. You could do even better if you moved the money to the Post Office's online saver which is currently giving 3.17% interest.

POPPYOSCAR

Ultrasonic wrote: »

I'm confused. If you're not going to transfer all of your relevent direct debits to actually earn cashback then aren't you bound to lose money once the £2 per month fee has been taken? You could earn exactly the same 3% interest rate with Santander's own eSaver account. This account wouldn't require you to transfer in a certain amount every month, or indeed keep a balance above £3k. You could do even better if you moved the money to the Post Office's online saver which is currently giving 3.17% interest.

This account was recommended to us by the in branch advisor as the best instant access savings rate at the time. We have set up one each as we have the maximum in each one.

We have transferred all relevant Direct Debits to both accounts but maintain those that do not attract cashback with our existing bank accounts. These accounts will not be used to write cheques from etc, as we do from our other bank accounts, so in effect they are purely for savings for the short term.



Post office saver is a good rate but we prefer not to do any banking on line.

SantEmp

Childintime wrote: »

So no increase in fees then. Lol.

I made a point of asking the RM about this and he seemed entirely sure that the fees would stay the same too.

SantEmp

Ultrasonic wrote: »

I'm confused. If you're not going to transfer all of your relevent direct debits to actually earn cashback then aren't you bound to lose money once the £2 per month fee has been taken? You could earn exactly the same 3% interest rate with Santander's own eSaver account. This account wouldn't require you to transfer in a certain amount every month, or indeed keep a balance above £3k. You could do even better if you moved the money to the Post Office's online saver which is currently giving 3.17% interest.

The eSaver is actually 2.96% monthly, so there's a little bit of profit to the 123.

It would be worth moving over the eligible direct debits though, the TV/Phone/Mobile/Broadband ones in particular. Also, try taking out the 123 CC, especially if you drive. 3% back on petrol can really mount up.

ffacoffipawb

SantEmp wrote: »

I made a point of asking the RM about this and he seemed entirely sure that the fees would stay the same too.

I it no longer paid 1%, 2% or 3% cashback (or interest), they would have to rename it.

I guess they could increase the monthly fee to £3.

innovate

ffacoffipawb wrote: »

I guess they could increase the monthly fee to £3.

Or reduce it to £1? Or scrap it entirely?

Ultrasonic

POPPYOSCAR wrote: »

This account was recommended to us by the in branch advisor as the best instant access savings rate at the time... but we prefer not to do any banking on line.

The eSaver I mentioned is internet or telephone access only, so that is probably why they discounted this. If you've got a full £20k in each 123 account then having two also makes sense. I'm no longer confused .

Ultrasonic

SantEmp wrote: »

The eSaver is actually 2.96% monthly, so there's a little bit of profit to the 123.

I think the 123 account actually also pays 2.96% monthly interest. Put £10k into Santander's online calculator and it will tell you this will earn £296 a year in interest.

ffacoffipawb

innovate wrote: »

Or reduce it to £1? Or scrap it entirely?

I was looking at worst case scenarios, not best case!