Opening a Santander 123 account?

zolablue25

I am considering opening a 123 account for the 3% interest and would like to transfer my DDs from my Barclays account (to benefit from the cashback), however I definitely do not wish to close my Barclays account (Offset mortgage account). Is it possible/straightforward to open a 123 account and transfer all DDs but still keep my Barclays account open?

Archi_Bald

You certainly can open a 123, or any other current account, alongside your existing account.

If you want the new provider to switch your DDs, this usually involves closing your old account now. Very few banks still offer a partial transfer service - you need to ask them whether they do. You will not get any guarantee when doing a partial transfer, however, so you might as well move your DDs yourself. It's quite easy to do - just give the payee your new bank details. Some even allow you to do this online, e.g. your utility provider if you have an online account with them.

kittiejazz21

Hi ive just had meeting with santander and when i asked to open 123 current account and move funds into it from from santander esaver. I was told that it had to be my main current account as i told her i did not want to switch from halifax. I was planning to set up standing order to transfer £500 each month and move two direct debits to it. But she said if i was going to treat it as a savkng account they could take the interest made back off me! Is this true?

Archi_Bald

Just ignore her and apply online.

There is nothing in the T&Cs that would support what she said, and there is also no way any bank could tell whether you use the account as your "main account". There isn't even a definition of a "main account", let alone a universally accepted one.

Other than that - don't point their noses on using the current accounts as savings accounts.

lulu_92

I did this in January. I manually transferred all of my DDs that would earn cashback and left the ones that don't in my Halifax account.

No_6

And me, now got a joint + ind account and 2 credit cards,
easy online use, soon to add another ind account,
all set up manually.


6

zolablue25

Thanks for the info folks. Applied online yesterday and got confirmation account opening email within 10 minutes. Put in the application that I was using it as a bill paying account rather than a main account and that was obviously acceptable to the computer adjudicating my application.