Santander 123 Current account - No students allowed?

jay213

Hi, a quick question about the Santander 123 current account. I've been with Halifax for years and I receive no interest on my current account balance and a poor rate on my savings account.

I'm a full time student but I also work part time. I earn just under the £1000 pm to qualify for the Halifax account where you could get the £5 pm interest.

I had some time today and decided to look about and came across the 123 current account that Santander are offering. It looks good to me and I easily can pay in more than £500 pm from work. But when I went to the sign up page it says the following.

Before you apply, make sure you are:
at least 18 years old;
living permanently in the UK;
are not a student or in full term education.

Does the last line mean that I can't apply for the account, I wanted to switch my current account with Halifax to this Santander 123 current account.

Can you have more than one current account? maybe I could keep my student loan payments with Halifax and switch my work payments to this new account or would I get into trouble for saying that I'm not a student?

Any advice appreciated, thanks.

jem16

jay213 wrote: »

I'm a full time student but I also work part time. I earn just under the £1000 pm to qualify for the Halifax account where you could get the £5 pm interest.

You only need £750 now but you must also have 2 payable direct debits each month.

are not a student or in full term education.

Does the last line mean that I can't apply for the account,

Sounds like it, yes.

Can you have more than one current account?

You can.

maybe I could keep my student loan payments with Halifax and switch my work payments to this new account or would I get into trouble for saying that I'm not a student?

You would be breaking the T&C for the account.

innovate

This subject was discussed some time ago. Search the forum.

Norman_Castle

Another Santander question for the same 123 account. If you exceed the £20,000 limit do you lose the interest on the amount above the limit or on the full amount?

innovate

Norman_Castle wrote: »

If you exceed the £20,000 limit do you lose the interest on the amount above the limit or on the full amount?

You get interest on balances between £1K and £20K. You will not lose any interest if you have more than £20K in the account, you just won't get any interest on anything above £20K.

A_Flock_Of_Sheep

Simple answer to this is don't tell Santander you are a student. How can they know if you keep Mum? Never tell banks what they want to know.

IF they ever found out you were a Student what can they do? Throw you in a dungeon? Not likely. Worst case is they will close your account.

Back in the good old Stoozing days of free 0% cash (no transfer fees) on cards my sister would lie about her income to get as many cards as she could. They never found out and she pocketed a lot of £££s

jay213

jem16 wrote: »

You only need £750 now but you must also have 2 payable direct debits each month.

I checked that out and it seems to be only for new customers that switch (plus £100 for switching) or join them. I tried to upgrade to the Reward current account online and it states that I would need to pay in £1000 pm to get the £5pm interest (I guess there are no perks for being an existing customer).

I've got a couple of direct debits that I pay. Quick question I seen people mention this but not sure if I can do it or not. Can I just take £150 + out by cash machine and then pay it straight back into the bank. Will the the amount that I deposit back in the bank count as though that was extra money put in for the month?

Gromitt

The T&Cs changed this month, they probably have not updated the website yet to match.

http://www.halifax.co.uk/bankaccounts/pdf/reward-current-account-guide.pdf

we’ll give you £5 each calendar month that you:
Pay in £750
Pay two different direct debits
Stay in credit.

But what you say will work, yes.

Jase_from_Up_North

Isnt this discrimination ? What if your a student with £500,000 in the bank ?

innovate

Jase_from_Up_North wrote: »

Isnt this discrimination ? What if your a student with £500,000 in the bank ?

Don't be ridiculous, there is no discrimination involved. Also, a student with £500K "in the bank" would need to have his head examined. Nobody would keep £500K in cash for any length of time.

Porcupine

jay213 wrote: »

I've got a couple of direct debits that I pay. Quick question I seen people mention this but not sure if I can do it or not. Can I just take £150 + out by cash machine and then pay it straight back into the bank. Will the the amount that I deposit back in the bank count as though that was extra money put in for the month?

I believe you can, and you don't need to use a cash machine - ping it to alternative bank X, then send it back again. Should take about 5 minutes, assuming Faster Payments is behaving itself.

Some folks around here have complicated chains of money pinging around by standing order to satisfy minimum deposit requirements: Halifax->Santander->Nationwide->Lloyds->Halifax...