Santander

r2015

I currently have £12,000 spread over Bos Vantage, Halifax Reward, TSB and Nationwide and a savings account earning a pitiful amount of interest. this earns me approx. £350 a year.
And I have to juggle money round the accounts to get this.

Also have £15,000 in ISAs.

According to mine and Santander's calculations I would get £416 -£24 cashback and interest, though I am not sure about my gas and electricity as I get them from the Coop and they are not listed on Santander's website.


Also my council tax is collected in 10 monthly instalments.


I was thinking of switching to Santander 123 account as it would be a hopefully use and forget account. as against always having to keep checking my other accounts to ensure they have the correct balances.


I am getting old and forgetful and nearly ended up with a -£0000 balance in one of my accounts so should I open a Santander 123 account and after everything is set up I can forget about transferring money about?
Income is pensions outgoings is gas, electricity Sky, broadband and council tax, food etc. and holidays.
No mortgage.

changearound

The Direct Debits don't need to pay out each month to get the interest on a 123 account, they just need to be set up.

r2015

What about the Cooperative for my gas and electricity?


Also if I use Santander's switching service will it combine my Vantage and Rewards account?

badger09

r2015 wrote: »

What about the Cooperative for my gas and electricity?

http://www.santander-products.co.uk/banking/calculator/cashbacksearch.html

And I'm sure its been mentioned on other threads that Co-operative Energy does qualify

r2015 wrote: »

Also if I use Santander's switching service will it combine my Vantage and Rewards account?

The switch service won't merge your accounts for you. You would have to apply to switch each account individually.

Or if you are simply using some of those accounts for savings, with no payments going in or out (apart from internal manual transfers for minimum funding requirements) you could just move the balances online once the Santander account is set up.

Personally, I wouldn't give up the 5% on TSB & Nationwide or the £5 monthly reward from Halifax, but then I quite enjoy playing the banks at their own game

Nick_C

Assuming you are a basic rate taxpayer, I would move the £15K from your ISAs to the Santander 123 account, where you will get 2.4% net, plus the cashback on your DDs.

You are entitled to pay Council Tax in 12 monthly instalments. This should help your cashflow.

Automate the transfers you are doing between accounts with standing orders. You can cycle the required amount between all your accounts on the same day.

Don't close any accounts that pay more than Santander's 3%.

And the £60 a year on your Halifax Reward account is money for nothing. Just fund the account and withdraw the same day, and keep a couple of direct debits active each month.

Don't use the switching service, just open 123 as an additional account.

System

Sounds like a good deal for you.

A £500 standing order (from the TSB to and from the Santander) would mean both funding requirements are met whilst keeping a secondary current account without any effort from you.

You could open Santander with a BOS switch via Quidco / TCB for £35/36 and switch to the Nationwide account directly with Halifax for £100...

r2015

http://www.santander-products.co.uk/...acksearch.html

And I'm sure its been mentioned on other threads that Co-operative Energy does qualify

If you put Coop energy into that search it does not return Coop energy as one of the qualifying DDs.

badger09

r2015 wrote: »

If you put Coop energy into that search it does not return Coop energy as one of the qualifying DDs.

If you start typing Co-operative Energy, it comes up with this
THE MIDCOUNTIES CO-OPERATIVE ENERGY
You earn 2% cashback with THE MIDCOUNTIES CO-OPERATIVE ENERGY

YorkshireBoy

r2015 wrote: »

If you put Coop energy into that search it does not return Coop energy as one of the qualifying DDs.

This is one of the threads referenced by badger09...


https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/67445558#Comment_67445558


Try playing with Co-Op, Cooperative, Coop, etc, on this site's search facility and maybe some other threads will come up?


What about asking Santander to add them? If enough people do that they might consider it.

r2015

If you start typing Co-operative Energy, it comes up with this
THE MIDCOUNTIES CO-OPERATIVE ENERGY
You earn 2% cashback with THE MIDCOUNTIES CO-OPERATIVE ENERGY

Not with me it doesn't

badger09

r2015 wrote: »

Not with me it doesn't

With me it does :cool:

However, see post 7 of this thread:

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5105528