2nd Santander 123 charges

Cannyscot

I was wondering if it is still worthwhile to open a second 123 account considering the £2 a month charge? If you already have an account and use the card does this mean that you would have to juggle two cards to annul the extra cost? If you don't do this is the interest sufficient less the admin fee rather than opening another account. I was wanting to max the 123 potential.

colsten

It depends how much you save and whether you can get better elsewhere.

Vortigern

Cannyscot wrote: »

I was wondering if it is still worthwhile to open a second 123 account considering the £2 a month charge?

If you have £20,000 in your second Santander123 account it will earn £39.46 per month in interest after basic rate tax. Subtract your £2 per month charge from that to deternine whether it's worthwhile for you.

You won't earn any extra cashback because all the DDs that pay cashback are already earning cashback on your first account. You still need 2 active DDs on the second account to qualify for the interest.

There's no need to juggle two cards - at least one of them should never leave your house.

There are accounts which earn 3% without a monthly fee. You could maximise those before opening a second 123

5erge

If you haven't already opened these accounts then do this before another Santander, infact do this before the first Santander.

TSB Classic Plus 2k @ 5% - Requires S/O £500 per month
Lloyds Club account 5k @ 4% Requires S/O £1500 per month
Lloyds Monthly saver £400 per month @ 4%

There are others but the TSB account is the one that does not require you to faff around with DD's

Des

castle96

didn't lnow that you could have 2 ! Doing it now

Cannyscot

I am suitably impressed by the speedy reply on this site. I suppose I am a bit apprehensive about opening all these current accounts and moving money about but I will read a bit more and try and get my head round the intricacies. I have received my lump sum from my pension and trying to make the right decisions! I am aware we are nearing the NISA cut off date and although my sum is not huge I notice that Santander 123 is offering an enhanced 2 year fix at 2%. Give the current uncertainty of the money markets I swithered about putting money away for two years when rates probably will go up.

ColdIron

castle96 wrote: »

didn't lnow that you could have 2 ! Doing it now

You used to be able to open more than one sole account but they stopped this last year. You can have a joint account or another sole account if you have a partner or spouse

enthusiasticsaver

I have 2 Santander 123 accounts, one at the maximum of £20k and the other is joint with my husband and is our main current account so sits usually between £15 and £20k. I moved 3 of our direct debits over to my sole account to offset the £2 charge so water, my mobile direct debit and our sky subscription come out of it. Our council tax and gas and electric and landline, broadband come out of the other one so we don't end up losing any of the interest to the fee charges. Our direct debit cashback is always more than the £4 charge for both accounts and the retail offers earn us extra as well.

bigfreddiel

You can also get up to £5,000 interest tax free in the next tax year 15/16 if you earn less than £10,600. That would make your 123 account return about £45/month after deducting the £2 monthly fee.

Cheers fj