Santander 123 & First Direct questions

OnlyMe_08

As with many others, I recently opened the FD 1st Account to get the £125 joining incentive and to qualify for their Regular Saver account.

Am I correct in stating that the monthly fee will be waived so long as I have £1 sitting in their Everyday Savings account, and that now I could move my direct debits elsewhere? I assume switching over 2 active DDs was part of the switching process to qualify for incentive, and there's no requirement to have any active DDs to service the account now?

I want to move my DDs to Santander's 123 account, which I'm considering. Regarding the monthly £500 funding, can this literally be shifted in then back out immediately?

On the cashback, do the DDs need to be monthly, or could they be quarterly / bi-annual? I'm assuming cashback will be applied in relevant month.

Now the interest on credit balances; initial impressions suggests a tiered structure, but I assume it's 2.96/3% on the WHOLE balance if I had £20000 from the get-go?

Thanks.

exel1966

OnlyMe_08 wrote: »

As with many others, I recently opened the FD 1st Account to get the £125 joining incentive and to qualify for their Regular Saver account.

Am I correct in stating that the monthly fee will be waived so long as I have £1 sitting in their Everyday Savings account, and that now I could move my direct debits elsewhere? I assume switching over 2 active DDs was part of the switching process to qualify for incentive, and there's no requirement to have any active DDs to service the account now?

I want to move my DDs to Santander's 123 account, which I'm considering. Regarding the monthly £500 funding, can this literally be shifted in then back out immediately?

On the cashback, do the DDs need to be monthly, or could they be quarterly / bi-annual? I'm assuming cashback will be applied in relevant month.

Now the interest on credit balances; initial impressions suggests a tiered structure, but I assume it's 2.96/3% on the WHOLE balance if I had £20000 from the get-go?

Thanks.

Yes, the fee will be waived if you have just £1 in the saver. It also negates the need to fund the !st account on a monthly basis.
Once you've received you're joining incentive you could remove/switch the DD's. There's nothing in the FD T&C's to say you have to keep DD's in place. Don't change them before you get your £125 !

As for 123 ANY DD's will do, monthly, quarterly, bi-annual etc. Cashback is applied on a monthly basis as is the account fee.

Deposit £20K and you'll get 2.96%/3% AER.

OnlyMe_08

Thanks, what about the £500 funding?

innovate

Yes it can as you asked.

You can also find other posts in which these sorts of questions have been answered before.

sparkyspark

exel1966 wrote: »

As for 123 ANY DD's will do, monthly, quarterly, bi-annual etc. Cashback is applied on a monthly basis as is the account fee.

According to the Santander staff member who opened a 123 account for me today, if you have two D/Debits on the account they must both make a monthly payment to qualify for the interest of 3%. He said if one of the two D/Debits which failed to make a payment eg: Council Tax which is over 10 months or a quarterly bill would invalidate the interest payment as only one D/D is paid out of the account in certain months. IS HE CORRECT as the terms and conditions state that their only needs to be 2 D/D on the account, it does not specify that they must be actively paying out to an institution every month nor should they be qualifying cashback companies etc.
Could anyone clarify please, and if so what documentation or other information do you base your answer on. Thanks

Hominu

Based on the T&Cs, I'd say he was wrong, and if I failed to get interest because a DD wasn't paid then I'd be writing a formal complaint, as no where does it say that the DDs have to be paid.

I just checked the website again and it says "Minimum 2 direct debits set up" and elsewhere on the site "Set up at least two Direct Debits".

The specific T&C section:

A4 Earning cashback and credit interest using your 123 Current Account
To earn cashback and credit interest on your 123 Current Account, you must:
a) pay the monthly account fee; and
b) pay in a minimum amount into your account each month; and
c) have at least two Direct Debits set up on your account; and
d) for earning credit interest only, you also need a minimum current account balance.
For information on minimum amount and minimum account balance requirements, interest rates and fees, please refer to the Interest Rates and Fees Information leaflet.

innovate

sparkyspark wrote: »

According to the Santander staff member who opened a 123 account for me today, if you have two D/Debits on the account they must both make a monthly payment to qualify for the interest of 3%.

Sounds like pure conjecture to me. As Hominu says, nothing in the T&Cs about this

sparkyspark

Thanks for the reply's, have spoke directly to a Santander Accounts Manager, and they have confirmed that the D/Debits DO NOT have to be monthly, and as long as they are an active D/D they can be monthly, quarterly, and even yearly. The account manager who spoke to me is now going to inform the Chesterfield branch manager to update his sales staff with regard to this criteria, as some staff clearly have not grasped the correct termination of this account.
He also stated you can have your name on up-to five 123 accounts, meaning five joint accounts or five individual accounts each for yourself and wife giving a total of ten for you and your partner.

innovate

LOL, yet another opinion from a bank employee. He might be right, he might be wrong - nobody knows because many employees (of all banks) just seem to be making things up as they go.

I do like his view of the 123 accounts a lot better since it is, sort of, supported by the T&Cs. Though of course, the term "active DD" neither appears in the T&Cs nor is it defined anywhere.

sparkyspark

I pointed out that point that the term "active DD" neither appears in the T&Cs nor is it defined anywhere, and he actually went away to clarify with whoever. But I think common sense dictates that if you need a D/D it should and would be active, otherwise as an individual why would you have a dead D/D you don't need set up on any account.

Anyway got another appointment later in June with the same guy to set up a few more 123 accounts as our Santander e-saver five's comes to an end, we'll see what happens then.

innovate

sparkyspark wrote: »

Anyway got another appointment later in June with the same guy to set up a few more 123 accounts as our Santander e-saver five's comes to an end, we'll see what happens then.

:eek::eek:

An appointment to set up a 123? It's done in minutes online, and if you got via TCB/Quidco, you stand a chance for some decent cashback, too.