Santander 123 3% account

Oldgeek

If you are opening a Santander 123 bank account, don't put any money in until you are certain that a minimum of two direct debits have been received. To immediately take advantage of the 3% rate I deposited a large sum after arranging for the DDs to be transferred. There was a delay in receiving one of the DDs. this resulted in a loss of 30.00 interest because no interest is paid until they have the DDs! I have discovered that there is a tab at the top in online backing which shows the status of the DDs.

bowlhead99

Oldgeek wrote: »

If you are opening a Santander 123 bank account, don't put any money in until you are certain that a minimum of two direct debits have been received.

Of course, some would consider it reckless to set up active direct debits on a brand new account into which no money has been put

robin58

Well you could do what I did.

Put in £100 to cover any outgoings .

I then set up the 2 DD's. When that was sorted moved my money up to the account limit in.

colsten

DDs have dates, billing frequencies, repetition factors and/or end dates. You could, for instance, set up an active DD today that bills once, in 11 months time. No problem if you don't have a penny in the account for the next 10 months. Nothing reckless. Two of these are sufficient for the 123.

OP, you do have a point to some extent. Though if you are not able to get 2 DDs set up on your 123 within your first statement month, you might as well get "fined" the interest you lose. The MSE forum's favourite DD provider will set up your requisite DDs within 3 or 4 working days if you ask them nicely.

Oldgeek

bowlhead99 wrote: »

Of course, some would consider it reckless to set up active direct debits on a brand new account into which no money has been put

'Reckless' here. 'Money' refers to the money you are expecting to get interest on. The account has the compulsory 500.00 in it and would cover most peoples DDs.

Archi_Bald

Oldgeek wrote: »

'Reckless' here. 'Money' refers to the money you are expecting to get interest on. The account has the compulsory 500.00 in it and would cover most peoples DDs.

There is no compulsory minimum amount for the 123. It is a current account and you can run it down to zero if you wish, or even use your overdraft.

Keeping £500 in it at all times is a waste of £500 as it will get no interest. If you want interest you need to have at least £3,000 in it. And yes, you need to pay in at least £500 a month if you want interest and cashback but you do not have to keep that £500 in the account.

JohnRo

Archi_Bald wrote: »

If you want interest you need to have at least £3,000 in it.

I know you know but worth mentioning, it's actually £1K for 1%, £2K for 2% and £3K+ for the headline 3% rate.

Oldgeek

Archi_Bald wrote: »

There is no compulsory minimum amount for the 123. It is a current account and you can run it down to zero if you wish, or even use your overdraft.

Keeping £500 in it at all times is a waste of £500 as it will get no interest. If you want interest you need to have at least £3,000 in it. And yes, you need to pay in at least £500 a month if you want interest and cashback but you do not have to keep that £500 in the account.

You're misreading the post. The 'compulsory 500.00' is the minimum monthly pay in which would cover your 'reckless' DDs when opening the account. I did not say compulsory minimum amount.

Eco_Miser

Well, you did say 'don't put any money in', and AFAIK, there's no requirement to pay the £500 in until near the end of the month.

tell_it_how_it_is

With all due respect, this is a non-issue, and simply a result of a DD setup problem specific to yourself.

Generally, just deposit £3k+ (for 3%) and setup at least two direct debits close to opening time, and sort your future monthly funding, and the rest will take care of itself.

Oldgeek

Eco_Miser wrote: »

Well, you did say 'don't put any money in', and AFAIK, there's no requirement to pay the £500 in until near the end of the month.

If you reread the post, the 'any money in' refers to the money that you are expecting to get interest on. I made this post to warn others of what could happen, not to become involved in posters' erroneous attempts at point scoring.