First direct / santander 123 advice required !!!

flyfto

i am looking to move current account from rbs to santander 1-2-3 account, but also looking to secure the £100 new customer from first direct.
Hopefully Just cycling 1500 in and out of the first direct account for 3 months, it says on first direct website that it has to be your salary paid in but some people are saying this isnt the case , which is it ?

i am looking for the best way of approaching this preferably paying my salary into the santander account and using this as main current account. (i am confused to exactly what it means by min 1k has to be in account to receive interest, is that interest on the balance of the account ie the 1,2 or 3 % or does it mean to get the cashback on bills ????)

also looking to use cashback credit card for all spending, looking at using capital 1 for 3 months (5% cashback) then moving onto the aqua card which pays 3% (max £100/year) afterward.
opened halifax reward accounts to, so should be tidy amount after a year of doing the above.
any suggestions / points of view much appreciated thanks

innovate

flyfto wrote: »

Hopefully Just cycling 1500 in and out of the first direct account for 3 months, it says on first direct website that it has to be your salary paid in but some people are saying this isnt the case , which is it ?

Not sure it's 3 or 6 months - - but the £1.5K can come from anywhere, it does not have to be salary. E.g. a Standing Order from your xyz account (and back to it with a Standing Order) would be perfectly ok. I have been doing this for yonks (even though I wouldn't need to any longer).

flyfto wrote: »

(i am confused to exactly what it means by min 1k has to be in account to receive interest, is that interest on the balance of the account ie the 1,2 or 3 % or does it mean to get the cashback on bills ????)

• you must pay £500 a month into your 123, and have at least 2 DDs (123 terms and conditions). Watch out for the nasty charges if you don't pay in the £500 each month
• you get cashback on eligible DDs, regardless of whether you also get interest or not
• if you have £3K upwards in your account, you get 3% AER interest (but only up to £20K balance)
• if you have between £2K and £3K in your account, you get 2% AER interest
• if you have between £1K and £2K, it's 1% AER. No interest if you are below £1K.
• interest gets calculated daily on the then available balance, and paid monthly

flyfto wrote: »

also looking to use cashback credit card

I'll leave this one to someone else to comment on, must rush to lunch :-)

exel1966

flyfto wrote: »

i am looking to move current account from rbs to santander 1-2-3 account, but also looking to secure the £100 new customer from first direct.
Hopefully Just cycling 1500 in and out of the first direct account for 3 months, it says on first direct website that it has to be your salary paid in but some people are saying this isnt the case , which is it ?

i am looking for the best way of approaching this preferably paying my salary into the santander account and using this as main current account. (i am confused to exactly what it means by min 1k has to be in account to receive interest, is that interest on the balance of the account ie the 1,2 or 3 % or does it mean to get the cashback on bills ????)

also looking to use cashback credit card for all spending, looking at using capital 1 for 3 months (5% cashback) then moving onto the aqua card which pays 3% (max £100/year) afterward.
opened halifax reward accounts to, so should be tidy amount after a year of doing the above.
any suggestions / points of view much appreciated thanks

1. FD - It doesn't have to be salary. Any credit to the account whether by 1 x £1500 or 15 x £100 will suffice.
2. FD will pay the £100 bonus usually within the first month.


3. Santander calculate interest on a daily basis on the total amount in the account if you have £1000+. If you drop below £1K for a day you'll get nothing for that day even if you have £999.99 in the account. It's nothing to do with cashback.

psychic_teabag

FWIW you can currently get £55 cashback from quidco for opening the 123 account.

flyfto

Cheers guys that explains a few things !