Santander 123 and Halifax Reward question

wintermute01

I currently have a Santander eSaver account as a savings account with a few thousand in it, but the bonus rate is about to expire. Other savings account rates look like a waste of time so was thinking of opening a Santander 123 instead.

My current account is a Halifax Reward so at the moment I'm getting the £5 a month interest payment.

Is it easy to use the switching service to the 123 account and keep the Reward one open so I can get the benefit of interest/cashback in both? i.e. can you cherry-pick which D/Ds to switch and which to leave? Obviously I still need to maintain the requirements of each account.

I use topcashback and see that they offer cashback for a switch to 123. So presumably I'd have to use the switching service rather than just opening the 123 account and manually moving D/Ds.

poolforever

I've also wondered if you HAVE to use Santander's switching service. Can you not do a DIY job?

DragonQ

I've never seen a switching service that lets you choose selectively which DDs and/or SOs to switch. If you switch, you'll have to move 2+ DDs back manually to continue receiving the £5pm. At the same time, I know of no switching reward that requires your old account to be closed except for the Halifax £100 offer right now.

Also bear in mind that Nationwide currently offer the highest interest rate in an instant-access account, although only up to £2500. Might be of interest to you.

Herbalus

Note that from 16 September, when the new switching rules are supposed to come in, the switching process will require the old account to be shut. If you don't want this to happen I'd do it sharpish.

wintermute01

Herbalus wrote: »

Note that from 16 September, when the new switching rules are supposed to come in, the switching process will require the old account to be shut. If you don't want this to happen I'd do it sharpish.

Thanks, I was not aware of that. Presumably you could contact your old bank and ask them not to close the account, or don't send off the account closure form?

Herbalus

wintermute01 wrote: »

Thanks, I was not aware of that. Presumably you could contact your old bank and ask them not to close the account, or don't send off the account closure form?

I'm not sure if that would work. There is an account closure form, so telling you bank isn't going to make any difference. According to the payment council's website, the account closure form is part of the two-step process, so I don't know what would happen if you didn't return it.

Maelwys

DragonQ wrote: »

I've never seen a switching service that lets you choose selectively which DDs and/or SOs to switch. If you switch, you'll have to move 2+ DDs back manually to continue receiving the £5pm. At the same time, I know of no switching reward that requires your old account to be closed except for the Halifax £100 offer right now.

I can confirm that you don't need to use their switching service to get the Santander 123 Account benefits. So I'd advise the OP to just get a new Santander account and keep the Halifax open.

I opened a Santander 123 account in July, and they didn't need any switching, just the £500 a month pay-in and two direct debits.

I signed up for a Halifax reward account shortly afterwards, which DID require that I use their account transfer service to get the starting bonus (£100) - the £5 monthly reward didn't need the transfer service, just the starting bonus. At the time I was moving away from an old Danskebank account, so didn't mind "transferring" away from this (after I'd moved all of the cashback-refundable DDs to Santander, naturally!)

In terms of managing the twin accounts, currently I'm getting my salary paid into the Santander, and transferring £750 a month into the Halifax by standing order to get the fiver. I've currently got things set up so that some regular outgoing payments (on which I wouldn't get cashback from Santander) come out of the Halifax account... but in theory (starting bonus requirements aside) as long as I keep at least two smaller direct debits in the Halifax account I could just transfer the bulk of that monthly £750 straight back out again in order to have it gain interest in the Santander account.

As long as I keep between £3k and 20k in the Santander account it's pretty good return (Annually ~2.4% after tax + £60 + Bill Cashback) for zero risk and effort; and doesn't eat into my ISA allowance or expire after 12 months. The only downside for me is the £2 a month fee for the Santander account, and the monthly cashback is currently more than offsetting that... :rotfl:

Maelwys

Possibly bad form replying to myself, but there's another reason not to ditch the Halifax account: from late September they'll be offering some pretty major cashback deals, albeit on a rather narrow range of retailers.

From: moneysavingexpert.com/news/banking/2013/08/halifax-unveils-debit-card-cashback-but-is-it-worth-switching-to
(apologies for the copy/paste, MSE won't let me post links yet)

"All Halifax debit card customers with online banking will be able to earn up to 15% cashback from the end of September under its Cashback Extras scheme, but only from selected retailers"

(This INCLUDES the Reward account, providing you opted for a Debit Card with it)

Where can I earn cashback? Retailers signed up to date are:

• Argos
• The Body Shop
• Domino’s Pizza
• Glasses Direct
• Hertz
• Homebase
• Marriott
• Morrisons
• New Look
• O2
• Oasis
• Ocado
• Pets at Home
• Play.com
• Q-Park
• Urban Outfitters

MisterMotivated

DragonQ wrote: »

If you switch, you'll have to move 2+ DDs back manually to continue receiving the £5pm.

I'd be wary of doing this, as Halifax say you need to have 2 active DD's linked to a Reward Current Account, and that they'll "periodically review" this and may convert accounts without 2 DD's set up to standard current accounts.

Best option would be not to use the switching service if you can help it.

DragonQ

That is not a concern - if they downgrade the account, you can simply upgrade it again once the DDs are back. I was told this in branch.

MisterMotivated

Ah yes, I did wonder about that. I suppose it was probably only in their terms to try to catch out people with 2 or more accounts (luckily I didn't fall for it ).