Santander 123 Current Account - Create DD's?

shicky

Hello everyone,

for a little while now I've been pondering the 123 Current Account as it looks to be pretty much the best savings account out there at the moment! However, I currently only have one direct debit which is a phone bill, which I am soon to get rid of and I understand you're required to have two to switch over?

On my existing current account I do have two additional direct debits which exist to clear the full amount on two credit cards, are these really considered direct debits? Especially as one will only be used when abroad?

Are there any other small print rules? i.e. if my direct debits drop below 2, my rate drops as well?

I was also thinking, given my lack of official bills (living at home) would I be better off with the FD account?

Thanks for any help you can provide, I did have a search around for the info first but wasn't quite able to find what I was looking for.

innovate

Any two direct debits that show on the 123 will count. Doesn't matter what these DDs are for.

If you don't have 2 DDs, you won't get any interest (there are pre-reqs, too). You also pay a £2/mth fee.

If you mean Nationwide FlexDirect by "FD": that only pays interest for up to £2.5K. If that's enough for your requirements, then the 123 is unlikely to be a good choice for you since it doesn't pay any interest on balances below £1K.

eskbanker

If you're struggling with having enough direct debits to get the benefits from a 123 (or any other account with similar conditions), have a look at innovate's thread at https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/4168667, where there are a number of savings accounts that allow direct debits, i.e. you can simply be transferring the money to yourself if you set up one or more of these purely for that purpose.

Or another option is to make charitable donations by DD, many will welcome this.

ColdIron

Bear in mind that the FlexDirect's 5% is a bonus offer that drops to 1% after a year. You can close it and open another one in 12 months, if they are still on offer, which is fine for a savings account but pretty inconvenient if you use it as a current account for bills, salary etc.

pqrdef

A snag with many charities is that it takes them ages to get round to setting up your DD, if they ever get round to it at all. I've got two or three that think I'm paying them noney, but they never did the DD. Unless they're collecting my donations from somebody else's account.

But the National Lottery is mostly for good causes, and they're very quick. And you never know, it could be you.

chromanoid

Hi guys

Need to get 2 direct debits active on 123 account by the 19th or lose my months interest.

Who is the quickest to process them? I don't have any of the bank accounts listed on the other thread, i dont really want to play lottery every week if can be helped as it will eat into savings (unless i won lol) and I dont have paypal but would consider opening one if it can be done fast enough.

Anyone got experiences of anywhere uber quick or will i lose this month?

nickcc

Just a comment on Martins comment the other day on this morning regards the 123 account. One of his suggestions was to open two accounts if you have over £20,000 to invest, the way to do this was to transfer at least £500 from the first 123 account into the new account, unfortunately Santander state that this would be in breach of their terms and conditions.

innovate

Seems Martin was badly briefed if he suggested that. The T&Cs for each 123 account are the same, and as far as the £500 are concerned, they have to come from a non-Santander account.

shicky

Hi guys,

thank you for the responses that clears it up nicely, I'm still undecided but good to know its not an issue.

By FD I meant First Direct as I believe they offer £125 for joining and there is a linked regular saver account offering 6% interest. Is it possible I could actually use both accounts, paying my santander 123 account a 'salary' of £500 a month from my first direct account, or does this not count?

Thank you all for your help and advice

Archi_Bald

shicky wrote: »

Is it possible I could actually use both accounts, paying my santander 123 account a 'salary' of £500 a month from my first direct account, or does this not count?

It would count since First Direct is not part of Santander. Many people have both.

rb10

ColdIron wrote: »

Bear in mind that the FlexDirect's 5% is a bonus offer that drops to 1% after a year. You can close it and open another one in 12 months, if they are still on offer, which is fine for a savings account but pretty inconvenient if you use it as a current account for bills, salary etc.

Just downgrade to a FlexAccount and re-upgrade to FlexDirect.

Might not work, but worth a try!

Agree with others that FlexDirect is likely to be a good choice for the OP.