What's the catch with playing the current account game?

nelinuk

YorkshireBoy wrote: »

Your calcs look OK to me, but if you only had £3K there are better places for it than Santander. By all means exploit them for the cashback, but stick your £3K savings in a brace of (£500 monthly by SO) cross-funded TSB Plus accounts. Interest alone would be £90 net of higher rate tax (ie 3 times what Santander would pay after the fees have been deducted). And best of all, you don't need to do anything after setting up the SOs.

Brill, thanks Yorkshire Boy. Looks like I have some sums and work to do over the weekend!

Voyager2002

jimjames wrote: »

If you're on a site about being lazy and not caring about money then you may have a point. On a site dedicated to making the most of your money then any tips that do that are worthwhile. The hassle is minimal and I've not received any marketing info. I do agree it isn't a loophole despite martin using that description.

I think the OP poses a fair question: being MSE must surely involve comparing any financial gain with the amount of time and effort required to obtain it. However, later posters have given fairly convincing evidence that if you are reasonably well organised then the effort is minimal and so the gains worth pursuing.

I would add, to those people with substantial amounts of money spread across various accounts, if your capital is more than about 20K you ought to be invested in equities. So long as you are reasonably well diversified the risk that you face is comparable to the risk of loss that you face from inflation if you remain in bank accounts, while the up-side is a good deal more attractive.

planteria

badger09 wrote: »

oldfella, you might want to think again about cutting up 'superfluous' debit cards. If you ever decide to switch accounts in future, you'll almost certainly be asked for your debit card number from the switched account.

I'm rather late to the switching party so have only just found this out. Ordering a debit card (which I'd declined when I opened the now defunct account) will delay my switch - and my switching bonus, by at least a week

i'm surprised by this. i have tended to keep a debit card for each account anyway, but i don't recall handing the existing debit card over, or requiring the card number, when i have switched to Halifax, Santander or Co-op Bank:think:

YorkshireBoy

planteria wrote: »

i'm surprised by this. i have tended to keep a debit card for each account anyway, but i don't recall handing the existing debit card over, or requiring the card number, when i have switched to Halifax, Santander or Co-op Bank:think:

You'll almost certainly need it if/when you switch to M&S.

planteria

mgarl10024 wrote: »

£2000 / 100hrs = £20/hr. I'd work for that.

good work, i like your thought process. and yes, i see it as part of 'the whole' too.

i agree with above comments re. Santander. their £20k limit on 3% does make them appeal to me (as a Savings Account) without having to mess around too much. other than that just use NWFD for 5% but limited to only £2500 and 4 £5s/m from Halifax.

nelinuk

planteria wrote: »

other than that just use NWFD for 5% but limited to only £2500 and 4 £5s/m from Halifax.

Sorry Planteria, what do "NWFD" and "4 £5s/m" mean?

planteria

nelinuk wrote: »

Sorry Planteria, what do "NWFD" and "4 £5s/m" mean?

sorry, Nationwide FlexDirect and 4 lots of £5 per Month payments from Halifax.

jimjames

nelinuk wrote: »

Apropos of this, it got me looking online as to whether I could get a better deal than my 1.7% gross ISA.

Please someone tell me if I have worked this out correctly or not.

Santander - 3% on balance of (say) £3,000 = £90 for the year gross.

I am a higher rate taxpayer so £90 x .6 = £54 for the year net.

£54 less £2 monthly fee = £30 for the year net. Which is effectively only 1% on the original £3,000.

Any comments welcomed! Thanks

(I appreciate Santander has the cashback component, but I wanted to make sure I was working the interest out correctly.)

For £3000 then 2x tsb makes more sense at 5%. Add in a Halifax account giving £75 pa before tax and at £225 you've got a far better return than 1.7% tax free.

colsten

planteria wrote: »

sorry, Nationwide FlexDirect and 4 lots of £5 per Month payments from Halifax.

New applicants can only get 1 sole and 1 joint Halifax Reward account now.

matttye

I couldn't be bothered with the hassle of it for the minimal gains (on the amount of money I have), so I just use my Santander 123 account now.

Did have a FirstDirect regular saver and a Nationwide FlexDirect, but they're now dormant.