Having more than £20k in Santander 123 current account

ManAtHome

philc27 wrote: »

It's true. £16 is not a lot, but it's better than nothing!

And hey, squeezing the last groat is what MSE's all about! :cool2:

Well if you want to live on bread and water, walk to work, never buy anything which may be a bit frivolous... get squeezing that groat, I'll stick to not worrying too much about a quid a month.

ztkr

ManAtHome wrote: »

Well if you want to live on bread and water, walk to work, never buy anything which may be a bit frivolous... get squeezing that groat, I'll stick to not worrying too much about a quid a month.

Sigh. That's not the point. The whole point is that for people who DON'T have time to stare at their 123 account every day to keep the balance at exactly £20k, they will earn more interest by letting the account veer below £20k rather than above, and putting the difference in a decent savings account.

colsten

philc27 wrote: »

Sigh. That's not the point. The whole point is that for people who DON'T have time to stare at their 123 account every day to keep the balance at exactly £20k, they will earn more interest by letting the account veer below £20k rather than above, and putting the difference in a decent savings account.

Sigh indeed. You seem to have little grasp of just how easy it is these days to manage a bunch of accounts on a regular basis. It most certainly does not require anyone to "stare at their 123 account every day". For example, you can use alerts to help with your account management.

I do agree with you that there's no point in having much over £20K in a 123. But there is no need either to keep it much below, either.

Krash420

colsten wrote: »

I have 4 active 123s, all of which have money going in and out all the while, and all of which are near enough £20K at the end of each day.

I thought you can only open one of these in your name, and one in a joint name?

I'm assuming you opened them before the rules changed? Is that correct?

darkidoe

colsten wrote: »

Nothing difficult in keeping them all at £20K. Only major forthcoming adjustment is the drop in FSCS limit

:T Very professional!

ManAtHome

philc27 wrote: »

Sigh. That's not the point. The whole point is that for people who DON'T have time to stare at their 123 account every day to keep the balance at exactly £20k, they will earn more interest by letting the account veer below £20k rather than above, and putting the difference in a decent savings account.

Even bigger sigh - if your account drops below 20k you lose interest at 3% - if you're only making 1.6% somewhere else you've more of a need to keep your eye on the Santander balance. If you don't want to monitor it every day, make sure you have enough in to prevent DDs taking it below £20k!

ztkr

colsten wrote: »

Sigh indeed. You seem to have little grasp of just how easy it is these days to manage a bunch of accounts on a regular basis. It most certainly does not require anyone to "stare at their 123 account every day". For example, you can use alerts to help with your account management.

I do agree with you that there's no point in having much over £20K in a 123. But there is no need either to keep it much below, either.

If you wish to spend your time adjusting your account balances to exactly 20k, then by all means feel free to do so. The person that I was originally trying to help clearly doesn't, and so the advice I gave would help them to maximise their overall savings interest, should they wish to. Not opinion, but mathematical fact, as long as the other savings account is paying more than 1.5% - and, like you said yourself, there are several that pay significantly more.

I can assure you that I do have a grasp of how to manage multiple accounts, and do so quite successfully, thank you. It might be helpful to MSE in general if you post something constructive instead of insulting people.

enthusiasticsaver

You will get interest on the first £20k and nothing above that. I have two Santander 123 accounts, one of which we keep at exactly £20k plus the amount of the direct debits which come out monthly. Our main current account varies between £18k and £23k depending on when our pay goes in. We still get interest on that one too. You can set an alert on the account so they tell you when the balance goes above a certain amount if you want to transfer it. I don't bother as we have direct debits and bills which always take it below the £20k over the month so it is rarely above £20k for more than a week.

djpailo

I think it all depends whether you have the time to manage it. Yes, you can set up alerts, but not everyone will have the time to check the limit every day. I'm not sure why people are getting into a fuss about how others are managing their accounts. In my opinion, just do what you can. Everyone's situation is different.