Santander 123 account fee increasing to £5 from January

bxboards

Herbalus wrote: »

Exactly.

And to give some figures, if every month you have £110 council tax, £70 water, £70 electricity, £20 mobile, and £30 broadband, your cashback for the year would be £54, which is less than £60.

In my own circumstances, every single one of my bills is lower than the amount above, so my cashback would be about £38 and I'd be £22 short of the annualised fee.

Indeed - I reckon pretty much anyone who is covering the £5 fee just on bills cashback could almost certainly ecomomise a bit and save that £3 increase somewhere. That seems an awful lot of outgoings on bills to me - maybe turn the heating thermostat down 1 degree or move to a less expense mobile for example.

gt94sss2

Thrugelmir wrote: »

Major announcements are made by press advertisements. Letters will not all be dispatched or indeed arrive at the same time. Not that the change is immediate.

FWIW my parents got a letter from Santander today officially informing them of the new charges...

Regards
Sunil

Nick_C

bxboards wrote: »

Indeed - I reckon pretty much anyone who is covering the £5 fee just on bills cashback could almost certainly ecomomise a bit and save that £3 increase somewhere. That seems an awful lot of outgoings on bills to me - maybe turn the heating thermostat down 1 degree or move to a less expense mobile for example.

Mobile Phone £12.80
Water £42.00
Virgin Media £32.00 (TV, Internet, Phone)
Gas & Electric £99.00
Council Tax £196.00

Cashback £5.70

Yep, its a lot of outgoings. I could economise but I don't want to be cold, shower less often, or lose contact with the outside world.

The biggest element of my bills is Council Tax. No way to economise on that at a personal level unfortunately (although I appreciate what the government is trying to do to reduce public spending).

molerat

Received our letters today, 4 for the 3 accounts we have. Two, for the joint account, both addressed to Mr X & Mrs Y, one for my account addressed to Mr X and one for MrsM's account addressed to Mrs Y & Mrs Y. I think their mailing system needs looking at.

daveyjp

Nick_C wrote: »

Mobile Phone £12.80
Water £42.00
Virgin Media £32.00 (TV, Internet, Phone)
Gas & Electric £99.00
Council Tax £196.00

Cashback £5.70

Yep, its a lot of outgoings. I could economise but I don't want to be cold, shower less often, or lose contact with the outside world.

The biggest element of my bills is Council Tax. No way to economise on that at a personal level unfortunately (although I appreciate what the government is trying to do to reduce public spending).

None of that looks excessive to me.

Posters are still forgetting 1% on Santander mortagages. You only need a £500 a month repayment to cover the fee. Its capped at £10 a month cashback, but better in your pocket than theirs.

Nick_C

daveyjp wrote: »

None of that looks excessive to me.

Posters are still forgetting 1% on Santander mortagages. You only need a £500 a month repayment to cover the fee. Its capped at £10 a month cashback, but better in your pocket than theirs.

I'm getting £7 cashback on the mortgage as well. Pure profit. Just wanted to make the point that you can get £5 cashback without being extravagant. With the new fee it is still a great account as far as i'm concerned.

DragonQ

Nick_C wrote: »

I'm getting £7 cashback on the mortgage as well. Pure profit. Just wanted to make the point that you can get £5 cashback without being extravagant. With the new fee it is still a great account as far as i'm concerned.

Yeah if you have a mortgage. If you rent, like me, it's tough to even scrape £2 cashback.

It's disappointing and means that I'll likely dump the account once I no longer have enough money to fund it - there are other accounts that pay 3% or more interest and if the cashback doesn't cover the account fee, there's no point having it. At least the £1000 tax-free interest allowance being introduced in April will counteract it for now.

EssexExile

DragonQ wrote: »

If you rent, like me, it's tough to even scrape £2 cashback.

Energy £2.50, council tax £2.50. Anything else is profit. As others have said if it works for you use it, if it doesn't why wouldn't you dump it?

bxboards

daveyjp wrote: »

Posters are still forgetting 1% on Santander mortagages. You only need a £500 a month repayment to cover the fee. Its capped at £10 a month cashback, but better in your pocket than theirs.

The money IS in Santander's pocket as you pay interest on the mortgage..they are giving you a tiny bit back.

Funny to think people getting a little back on a mortgage payment is profit, or money going into your pocket. It's just a tiny effective reduction in your interest rate, capped at £10.

Is the Santander mortgage the best deal on the market?

This is what I meant earlier when I said that if folks were covering the £5 fee just on bill % then possibly they need to look at their outgoings and work out why it's so high.

Nick_C

bxboards wrote: »

Is the Santander mortgage the best deal on the market?

This is what I meant earlier when I said that if folks were covering the £5 fee just on bill % then possibly they need to look at their outgoings and work out why it's so high.

In my case yes. A life time tracker at BOE base rate + 2% with no arrangement fee and the ability to overpay at any time without penalty was the best deal I could find. So the £7 a month cash back in addition really is a great bonus.

Clearly the 123 account will no longer suit everyone, but for many it is still a really great deal.