Santander 123 and Halifax Reward question

anoncol

Maelwys wrote: »

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)

Reading the article about that, getting cashback from halifax sounds like a right pain in the !!!!! They really dont want to pay out but want to make it look appealing.

wintermute01

Maelwys wrote: »

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.

The reason I asked about switching was twofold:
1) Topcashback pays £45.45 for doing it, which you know, would be kinda nice!
2) They move all your D/Ds for you which does save a lot of hassle I think.

Even if I had to manually move two D/Ds back to Halifax it's less trouble. Obviously I want to keep a couple on Halifax that Santander won't pay cashback on.

But it sounds like the setup you've got is exactly what I'm aiming for. Maybe if my application is well in process before the 16th Sept there'd be no forced account closure. :think: Hmm, better make a quick decision.

Archi_Bald

DragonQ wrote: »

I've never seen a switching service that lets you choose selectively which DDs and/or SOs to switch.

I have. First Direct have always offered you the choice. However, it is about to become academic with that new switcher service that closes your old account, apparently, whether you like it to be closed or not.

anoncol

Archi_Bald wrote: »

I have. First Direct have always offered you the choice. However, it is about to become academic with that new switcher service that closes your old account, apparently, whether you like it to be closed or not.

So i thought it was meant to help the consumer and encourage competition. How does closing the account do that?

Archi_Bald

anoncol wrote: »

So i thought it was meant to help the consumer and encourage competition. How does closing the account do that?

You tell me....

I think the general idea [the bankers have] is that people want to have one current account, and one only. Never mind the dangers of being reliant on a single bank (ref Natwest/RBS/Ulster meltdown), they want us to forget about these sort of issues.

At the same time, they had to come up with some scheme to satisfy the inflated claims of Gideon Osborne that current account switching would be possible in the space of 7 days.

We shall see what that new switcher service will do - I am already looking forward to the confused posts by some poor lambs who took the promises of the banks and politicians as gospel.

anoncol

Archi_Bald wrote: »

You tell me....

I think the general idea [the bankers have] is that people want to have one current account, and one only. Never mind the dangers of being reliant on a single bank (ref Natwest/RBS/Ulster meltdown), they want us to forget about these sort of issues.

At the same time, they had to come up with some scheme to satisfy the inflated claims of Gideon Osborne that current account switching would be possible in the space of 7 days.

We shall see what that new switcher service will do - I am already looking forward to the confused posts by some poor lambs who took the promises of the banks and politicians as gospel.

Is there already a thread about this? This is way off topic.

But, is it only using "switching services" that force this or can banks offer "traditional" ways to open accounts still? Or is this the end of multiple accounts? or is this speculating?

Herbalus

anoncol wrote: »

Is there already a thread about this? This is way off topic.

But, is it only using "switching services" that force this or can banks offer "traditional" ways to open accounts still? Or is this the end of multiple accounts? or is this speculating?

You will still be able to open accounts here there and everywhere if you so wish; it's just the switching process, managed through the bank's switching team, that you won't be able to do so much.

Think about it, if you want to switch your banking that means swapping one for the other, so it doesn't really make sense to keep them both open. Of course, many people on here will "switch" (wink wink) for the switching incentives, so it's a shame that's gone. You can still go to Halifax for example and open a Reward account without switching (using their switching service) from your another bank, but you just won't get the £100 switching bonus.

DragonQ

You can also still open dummy accounts and switch those.

eskbanker

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.

I specifically asked Santander about this when I opened my first 123 about a year ago and can confirm that their switching service doesn't allow cherry-picking, it's all or nothing.

anoncol

DragonQ wrote: »

You can also still open dummy accounts and switch those.

So if the incentives still require DDs to be paid once switched, you have to manually transfer to the dummy accounts say 2 DDs then the switching service can transfer/close that account .