Direct Debit problem on 123 account

where_are_we

My wife (non tax payer) has lost cashback and interest (about £50) for her last statement period 23/9/14 to 22/10/14 on her 123 account (20K) because she cancelled her 2 Direct Debits paid to SE Electricity and SE Gas following a transfer to First Utility.The final 2 DD`s to SE Electricity and Gas were paid on 1/10/14 and these were then cancelled and the new DD for First Utility was unfortunately a single DD for both gas and electricity.This was first paid on 2/10/14.Another DD was needed to qualify for interest and cashback. A new DD to Tesco Internet Saver was set up on 23/10/14 ( according to Santander) although a letter from Tesco confirmed the set up as 22/10/14.Because 3 DD`s had already been taken in October the setting up of the new DD to Tesco was not seen as urgent.This was a mistake and despite a plead for "leneincy" Santander has refused to reinstate the cashback and interest stating - "To benefit from interest you must have at least 2 DD`s set up on the account and at the time of calculating interest on your account there was only 1 DD active on your account."
So remember to keep 2 DD`s "active" and that having 3 DD`s paid out in your one month statement period does not qualify you to interest and cashback.
With regards to savings accounts which allow DD`s, Newcastle Building Society are removing this option from 3/11/14 for the Sir Bobby Robson Saver.So set up a different DD immediately (Tesco Internet Saver and Tesco Instant Access are good) to avoid a missed interest payment like ours.

grumbler

Why that urgency with cancelling the old DDs?!

polymaff

where_are_we wrote: »

So remember to keep 2 DD`s "active" and that having 3 DD`s paid out in your one month statement period does not qualify you to interest and cashback.

You've had a raw deal, but not an unjust one. We have three long-term DDs set up on each of our 123 accounts - just to provide a bit of margin against human error.

Incidentally, it is not "active", but set up. This gives plenty of scope for low-maintenance solutions

Buzby

Bad luck - but Santander do not hide this and the requirement of the hoops you need to jump through are well documented. Your alacrity in cancelling them and falling foul of the requirement is a great pity, but you could easily have kept them in place to ensure the minimum was met - cancelling them only when the others were registered.

At least it was just one month's interest, restored once the total of DDM's was 2 or more.

Motormad

My wife has opened a new Santander 123 c/a and has set up 2 direct debits but the first payments will not be taken till the day after the end of the first statement.Will this qualify for investment interest or has she wasted funding of 20k for a month,any opinions please? Thanks.

ManAtHome

They don't need to be paid, just check the DDs tab of the current account to ensure they're active (on the list).

AJCAJC

Motormad wrote: »

My wife has opened a new Santander 123 c/a and has set up 2 direct debits but the first payments will not be taken till the day after the end of the first statement.Will this qualify for investment interest or has she wasted funding of 20k for a month,any opinions please? Thanks.

Providing you have 2 direct debits showing as active on your account, you will qualify for interest, regardless of whether a payment has been made.

Motormad

Thanks for your reassurances that interest will be paid as long as the dd's are shown as set up(ie active).

ManAtHome

And for subsequent months you obviously have to cycle £500 in/out (or out/in...) of the account as well.

where_are_we

Thanks for the replies -I didn`t want the old Utility taking any more money and maybe forgetting to cancel it after the transfer had gone through and the new utility had taken its first DD ( paying double in 2 days didn`t please me). I hope this prevents similar mistakes with DD`s. Having 3 DD`s set up does provide a margin of error. Does Water rates on an 8 month DD and council tax on a 10 month DD count as 12 month "active" Direct Debits? or is this another way for savers to miss the"hoops"

Motormad

I just opened a Santander 123 today and confirmed that the dd had only to be set up to get interest and not necessarily have paid out yet.I also discovered that no interest is added until the dd s are set up so my wife wasted funding her account with 20k for the first 3 weeks of her new account.