Has Anyone Moved to Santander 1 2 3?

Crater

We haven't moved a bank account for many years in fact i think we never have, so wanted some advice on how difficult the process can be.

Santander 1-2-3 is in effect offering 3% for instance access, which is better than anywhere else and as we have some money we want to keep instant for the time being this would be a help. We have a longstanding Barclays account we could shift from, which is not now our main account but does have direct debits and some inpayments on it, and i think we can meet the £500 a month criterion from our main account. (We are self employed so we dont have a regular salary to pay in.)

Santander still has a pretty low customer services rating. Has anyone had good or bad experiences with this bank/account?

innovate

Just browse the forum, there are dozens of people on the 123. Some of them, like myself, even have more than one 123. It's a brilliant account IMO, and the satisfaction rating on MSE's own survey are quite impressive. The 'bad customer service' mantra is a red herring.

As an aside, the 123 interest is NOT better than anywhere else. For starters, there is the Nationwide FlexDirect at 5%, and Lloyds, Bank of Scotland and TSB all do 'true' 3% accounts, whilst at Santander, you have to deduct £24/year for the account fee. Many people do find, however, that they can earn more than £24/year in cashback for the qualifying DDs.

Lots and lots more on the forum about all these accounts.

latecomer

Check the bank account board for more discussions but we've got one (and the 123 Credit card too) and find them both good value for us.

talexuser

Santander had a bad reputation when they took over other failed banks like Alliance & Leicester and had to integrate all the different computer systems and train up staff to cope. Things appear to have improved since then, but there are no guarantees in life.

Personally I have two 123 accounts (don't use them as main accounts but have all the DDs set up without problem) and never had a problem. Also had various online savings accounts in the past when they were top of the tables and never had a problem opening or closing.

msallen

I've had one since they launched (I was an existing customer from prior to the A&L takeover). Never had any problems with it. As stated up-thread cashback on my DDs covers the account fee (about 3 times over)

pittspitch

I opened a 123 account recently, in addition to other bank current accounts so sorry cannot comment on "switching". I would mention that I had a brief exchange to get my credit interest from day one. I deposited £18k, set up 3 DD but noticed after 6 weeks I had not received any credit interest. On enquiry I was told the DD had to be "active" by which I think they meant started to work. I replied stating show me in T&C's where this word "active" appears or credit me from day one. They credited me.

Crater

pittspitch wrote: »

I opened a 123 account recently, in addition to other bank current accounts so sorry cannot comment on "switching". I would mention that I had a brief exchange to get my credit interest from day one. I deposited £18k, set up 3 DD but noticed after 6 weeks I had not received any credit interest. On enquiry I was told the DD had to be "active" by which I think they meant started to work. I replied stating show me in T&C's where this word "active" appears or credit me from day one. They credited me.

Thank you for that warning Pittspitch! V useful.

Thank you innovate i will look into the others. We have a Santander branch locally which I find helpful - not sure which others are. We don't qualify for the Flex Direct as we can't put £1000 in every month from an external source :-) Also the 5% is for 1 year only, and there are other strings, though it's good otherwise.

Does the outgoing bank ring you and try and talk you into staying? This was one of my least favourite bits about energy switching. Oddly only one of the "old" companies did this, the one I wasn't expecting to!

Onawingandaprayer

Switched last Feb after 40 odd years with Natwest and it's been the best thing I've ever done. (Well, let's not be silly. Banking-wise, of course!)

All v painless, and every month profitable.

latecomer

Normally you can re-cycle money so you could transfer in the same £500 twice to make £1000 of funding per month.

Plus as the interest rate of the 123 account is for balances over £3000 IIRC so you would need this much before getting the 3% interest rate.

Crater

Further feedback - the other 3% accounts mentioned have an interest ceiling of £5000 in the account. Santander are advertising a £20,000 ceiling, which suits us better as we have unenven cash flow. This is probably why it's a recommended account on this site at the moment.

Crater

latecomer wrote: »

Normally you can re-cycle money so you could transfer in the same £500 twice to make £1000 of funding per month.

Plus as the interest rate of the 123 account is for balances over £3000 IIRC so you would need this much before getting the 3% interest rate.

We thought about various ways of cycling and they all ended up as "headache" and then after a year you lose the 5% ... we are keeping an eye on it though. My MIL now has this account as her pension goes into it. She may have to change back though as she's gradulaly coming to the point where she needs counter support to get money out, and it's specified for people who rarely use the branch.

We think we can do the £3000, and you get some interet below that, though not so much.