Santander 123 Current Account DD Query

tomsocr

Can anyone clarify the following please.

I've just opened a 123 Current Account with Santander. I've already funded the account with £20k, but awaiting my DD's to be transferred. However, after speaking with my DD companies, they informed me that the next payments will be taken after the 30 day period.

I've spoken to Santander on the phone and they informed me that the DD's must be active (money leaving the account) within 30 days. However, after speaking to an advisor in branch they just need to be setup, but not necessarily money leaving the account.

Has anyone else had experience and know the right answer? I don't want to leave my money in the account knowing on the monthly anniversary I will miss out on a chunk of interest.

Thanks

innovate

The DDs don't need to pay, they just need to be set up. It takes about a week to set up a DD to a TESCO savings account, and there are other DDs that can be set up very quickly (if only as a temporary measure until the DDs that you want to transfer are done).

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/4168667

ColdIron

They just need to be setup, you don't need to wait for them to pay a bill
This also helps for Council tax and Water bills that aren't collected for all 12 months of the year

tomsocr

Excellent, thanks for the feedback guys. Again Santander giving out the wrong information.

Thanks for the DD article.

Gromitt

ColdIron wrote: »

They just need to be setup, you don't need to wait for them to pay a bill
This also helps for Council tax and Water bills that aren't collected for all 12 months of the year

Not relevent to Santander, but you can choose to pay your Council Tax over 12 months instead of 10 if it makes it easier to budget.

ColdIron

Gromitt wrote: »

Not relevent to Santander, but you can choose to pay your Council Tax over 12 months instead of 10 if it makes it easier to budget.

Yes I've read about that although I gather that not all councils advertise this or make it easy

YorkshireBoy

Gromitt wrote: »

Not relevent to Santander, but you can choose to pay your Council Tax over 12 months instead of 10 if it makes it easier to budget.

Ditto water bills (at least with my provider).

ColdIron

I've got a related Santander/DD query
I've recently opened a second 123 and am waiting for my 2 HL DDs to become setup before transferring the £20K

Does anyone know when HL notify the bank? I'm guessing the 17th when you can no longer change the amount

I have sent HL a direct message but it won't be answered until tomorrow and I'm feeling impatient today

tomsocr

ColdIron wrote: »

I've recently opened a second 123 and am waiting for my 2 HL DDs to become active before transferring the £20K

Do you not start earning interest until there are 2 direct debits setup on the account? Again Santander told me that so long as the DD are setup before the next monthly £2 fee is due I will get the full months interest on £20k regardless of the day the DD's were setup.

ColdIron

tomsocr wrote: »

Do you not start earning interest until there are 2 direct debits setup on the account?

My understanding is that interest starts being calculated from the date the 2 DDs are setup. I can't find this explicitly stated in the T&Cs but looking back at the first month of my original 123 I received £22 interest which seems to support this but I may be wrong

innovate

My experience is that they pay interest from day 1 provided the 2 DDs show when they calculate the interest (and at least £500 have gone in).

Don't know the answer to Coldiron's HL query, sorry.

Also remember, the Santander "month" is not a calendar month, but your personal month, which starts on the "monthiversary" of your account opening date.