MSE News: Should I save in Santander's 123 account or put the money in a cash ISA?

Hammer_Time

colsten wrote: »

How do you get round the Santander 123 T&Cs that say you can have max 1 sole and one joint 123 account? Is it moral to bypass T&Cs?

I believe now you may only hold a maximum of two 1|2|3 Current Accounts, one in your own name and one in joint names. However I hold two joint accounts, it might be worth a phone call!!!

raggedyanne

Thanks for phone number that's who I phoned. I was hoping someone might have the branch number direct .

olip74

The article that links to this thread needs to be updated. Apparently Santander are raising the monthly fee from £2 to £5. That's a stonking increase of 150% in annual fees to £60.

I'm going to have to do the sums as I have an RBS current account and could sign up for RBS' Rewards and get 3% on all my bills for £2 per month. As it's just been launched it will surely be a while before they have the nerve to increase the fees? However there is (next to) no interest on savings so that money may be better placed elsewhere.

Archi_Bald

olip74 wrote: »

I'm going to have to do the sums as I have an RBS current account and could sign up for RBS' Rewards and get 3% on all my bills for £2 per month. As it's just been launched

Have you got a link to that new account please?

olip74

Archi_Bald wrote: »

Have you got a link to that new account please?

Actually it's not what I thought!

It's called "Cashback Plus" but you earn "Rewards" and it's not a new account, it's a scheme available to most RBS/NatWest current account holders. You get 3% on your DDs and can covert it into cash or vouchers. However it only runs until the end of the year as it turns out.

I've had a couple of emails with a link that takes you here:

http://personal.rbs.co.uk/personal/current-accounts/cashback-plus2.html?

Don't know where I got the £2 fee from!

Thinking about the Santander thing though the changes to tax on savings next April may mitigate the impact of the fee increase. If you have around £5k in your 123 account you'll be no worse off. However Santander will have effectively nobbled the interest you stood to gain!

csense1

VIRTUALLY USELESS AND UNPLEASANT TO DEAL WITH.
I switched our Joint Account from First Direct to Santander solely to obtain at least some saving. What a mistake. First Direct have a simple efficient and straightforward system designed for the Online world. Santander have not. The website is very slow. The design is ridiculously cumbersome-statements do not appear immediately and setting up payments especially to credit cards very poor.
You can forget customer service -when you eventually get through they are grumpy, unpleasant and the system does not allow them to correct issues. And god forbid you make an incorrect log-in 3 times -not only are you locked out but they have to send 2 letters through the post to get you back on-that’s a week!! AVOID AVOID -if you can, although if you satisfy all their criteria you will save some money ask 'is it worth it'?

colsten

csense1 wrote: »

VIRTUALLY USELESS AND UNPLEASANT TO DEAL WITH.
I switched our Joint Account from First Direct to Santander solely to obtain at least some saving. What a mistake. First Direct have a simple efficient and straightforward system designed for the Online world. Santander have not. The website is very slow. The design is ridiculously cumbersome-statements do not appear immediately and setting up payments especially to credit cards very poor.
You can forget customer service -when you eventually get through they are grumpy, unpleasant and the system does not allow them to correct issues. And god forbid you make an incorrect log-in 3 times -not only are you locked out but they have to send 2 letters through the post to get you back on-that’s a week!! AVOID AVOID -if you can, although if you satisfy all their criteria you will save some money ask 'is it worth it'?

That made me chuckle. If your desirable standard is the FD online banking website, I am not surprised you don't like the more sophisticated Santander online banking, or that of any other bank (HSBC excepted). You are also the first one in years reporting that the Santander website is slow, and there are plenty of Santander users on here.

Do you really want to complain about the security after 3 consecutive failed logins? Would you rather that you/a fraudster could try more often? And then just ring up and get your access reset? I doubt there is any bank that would allow this, but if they did, I would be seriously worried.

I would agree that there are many better current accounts than the Santander 123 (and than FD, for that matter) but ther online banking and access to it are just fine.

jimjames

csense1 wrote: »

VIRTUALLY USELESS AND UNPLEASANT TO DEAL WITH.
I switched our Joint Account from First Direct to Santander solely to obtain at least some saving. What a mistake. First Direct have a simple efficient and straightforward system designed for the Online world. Santander have not. The website is very slow. The design is ridiculously cumbersome-statements do not appear immediately and setting up payments especially to credit cards very poor.

First Direct had probably the worst bank website and mobile app of any bank that I've tried.
I no longer have an account with them but it's certainly not the standard to judge other banks by. Add in the fact that they pay no interest on their account then it's even more worthwhile using an alternative.

ericthelobster

colsten wrote: »

there is no tax payable on cashback, but 20% BR tax is automatically withheld from interest unless you are tax exempt.

Is this definitely correct? Can anyone point me at some 'proof'? I'll be delighted if it's true, but on what basis is money paid to me by Santander as interest taxable, whereas money paid as cashback is not?

(Presumably the Santander monthly account fee cannot be offset against tax?)

masonic

ericthelobster wrote: »

Is this definitely correct? Can anyone point me at some 'proof'? I'll be delighted if it's true, but on what basis is money paid to me by Santander as interest taxable, whereas money paid as cashback is not?

(Presumably the Santander monthly account fee cannot be offset against tax?)

Cashback is not taxable because it is treated as a discount applied to something you have purchased.