Is the Santander 123 Account Worth it?

anotheruser

Does anyone know:

If you apply online, where is your sort code's "home" bank? IE, a sort code indicates which branch the account was opened in. So if it was all done online, is it a London branch or a special "online" sort code?

Also, if I pay my council tax annually rather than monthly, will I get the percentage of the full £900 or whatever it will be? Or does it only work if I pay monthly, or should it work out the same whichever way?
I prefer to pay things off now rather than have monthly bills.

innovate

I wouldn't worry about the sort code, it's just a number.

You get cashback as a %age of what you pay, on all qualifying DDs.. There is no requirement to pay anything monthly. You can confirm this in the T&Cs yourself.

Sponge

Has anybody with a Santander mortgage and Zero account changed their account to the 123?

I've held off as I think the overdraft rates on the Zero account are better and I'm overdrawn at the moment.

However, as I have a Santander mortgage and several utility bills coming out of my Zero account I was wondering if I should just bite the bullet. Their calculator suggests I'll get about £100 per year cashback (after deducting their fee). And I can boost that by £70 if I stop using my Amex 321 Reward card and use the 123 credit card instead.

ANGLICANPAT

Looking at the 123 details, to consider whether opening it, I see they say they are offering an esaver issue 9 at something like 1.5% . Why would anyone want one if they can save up to 2- 20k in the 123 @3%?

innovate

Because they might have more than £20K to save?

innovate

Sponge wrote: »

Has anybody with a Santander mortgage and Zero account changed their account to the 123?

I haven't - - but can't you just keep your Zero account, open a 123, and move your qualifying DDs and your mortgage payments to the 123?

ANGLICANPAT

innovate wrote: »

Because they might have more than £20K to save?

Tsst ! of course!

ses6jwg

ANGLICANPAT wrote: »

Looking at the 123 details, to consider whether opening it, I see they say they are offering an esaver issue 9 at something like 1.5% . Why would anyone want one if they can save up to 2- 20k in the 123 @3%?

The same reason people stay with the same bank for 30 years.

The same reason they pay 3 times as much on their home insurance because they can't be bothered to switch.

The same reason they keep thousands in accounts paying 0.1%

Gizmo247

innovate wrote: »

I haven't - - but can't you just keep your Zero account, open a 123, and move your qualifying DDs and your mortgage payments to the 123?

Not a mortgage but with qualifying savings. Kept the Zero account and opened a 123 account. I'll keep using the Zero account as my main and try to hang on to it for as long as possible.

macman

anotheruser wrote: »

Does anyone know:

If you apply online, where is your sort code's "home" bank? IE, a sort code indicates which branch the account was opened in. So if it was all done online, is it a London branch or a special "online" sort code?

Also, if I pay my council tax annually rather than monthly, will I get the percentage of the full £900 or whatever it will be? Or does it only work if I pay monthly, or should it work out the same whichever way?
I prefer to pay things off now rather than have monthly bills.

Why give your LA a year's interest free loan though?-this is MSE after all. The terms are that you must have two DD's set up on the account, that could be an annual DD if you wish-there's no requirement for it to be monthly.