Santander 123 3% account

bouicca21

When I set up my account I synchronised putting the first 3k in with shifting DDs for utilities, council tax etc (I.e. Anything that would get cashback). It all worked fine, and I am actually very pleased with it.

wallbash

The bigger problem, don't go over the £20,000

Oldgeek

tell_it_how_it_is wrote: »

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.

Hardly a non-issue, as it is a problem that can happen to anyone, hence my post to help others to avoid what happened.

I am very surprised at posters' erroneous nitpicking about a straightforward matter. The contents of the posts show that my post has not been read properly. I have no more to say on the subject; I am returning to Streetlife where people thank you for information/warnings rather than bicker!

Cornucopia

colsten wrote: »

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.

You mean Standing Orders. (Not relevant to the 123 qualifications).

DDs are simply a permission for an organisation to take money from your account on an agreed basis.

Cornucopia

wallbash wrote: »

The bigger problem, don't go over the £20,000

What happens if/when you get to £20k?

wallbash

Interest is not payed on the amount above 20.000

So we try and keep that account running at between 18 to 19, but we have lost out when some larger cheques have arrived early

colsten

Cornucopia wrote: »

You mean Standing Orders. (Not relevant to the 123 qualifications).

DDs are simply a permission for an organisation to take money from your account on an agreed basis.

No, I do mean DDs. Like the ones you can set up for your Tesco savings accounts.

NoMore

wallbash wrote: »

Interest is not payed on the amount above 20.000

So we try and keep that account running at between 18 to 19, but we have lost out when some larger cheques have arrived early

I see this a lot but don't understand the logic of it. If you have the account to take advantage of the 3% on 20 grand then, if you have the funds why not keep 20 grand in there all the time? Its pretty easy to check your balance daily and transfer any excess out to other accounts (which should also provide you interest of course )

BarryBlue

You can have more than one 123 account. We have two each, plus a joint one, so we are getting 3% on a total of £100k, plus a bonus on the DD payments that go out every month which covers the £2pm charge on each one. It's a no-brainer, frankly.

Ryan_Futuristics

The thing is you really need to be targeting at least 5-6% interest to make saving worthwhile at all

Factor in tax and inflation and you're still losing money with these accounts - and the fact they're all limited on how much they'll pay interest on means you're not getting any long-term compounding benefits on your savings beyond a point (unfortunately inflation is unconstrained in this respect)

Cash has always been a loser's game - a good temporary store of capital, but there's no way to actually grow your savings that doesn't involve investing in something