Moving on from Santander...

deejaybee

Hi all,,

I have banked with Abbey Nat / Santander for literally decades so have a lot of " inertia " to over come !!

Currently have a 123 current account, a 123 credit card and an everyday joint current account.

My wages go into 123 current account, so I do make some interest and get cashback from 3 or 4 d/ds, but the increased fee will wipe those out and will actually cost me money.

So as a first step, before January when new fees come in I will downgrade the 123 to an everyday account, just to stabilise things.

I am planning on keeping the 123 credit card, I am self employed and do a lot of business miles, so usually hit the £9 per month max cashback for petrol, plus bits and bobs from supermarket spends etc..

I also want to start hitting some of the switching bonuses, but I don't want to use the Santander account as a "donor" account at this time, I have quite a lot of d/ds and my wages go in there, so I would be worried about transfer going pear-shaped..

I am considering opening a Lloyds Classic current account to act as a donor account for starting the switching process, they have a branch in my local high st, and being a small town we don't have many bank branches now, so that will be handy.

I am thinking that first switching target will be Halifax, for the 125 + 5 per month, I think the 125 offer finishes sometime in October so I need to get my skates on with opening LLoyds..

I am a novice at all this stuff as it stands, so hopefully my "plan" above makes some sort of sense ?

Advice appreciated, Ta

xylophone

Why not open Club Lloyds and switch 123 to it?

Presumably you could meet the monthly pay in one way or another?

http://www.lloydsbank.com/current-accounts.asp

You could switch the joint account to Halifax and move a couple of the DDs from Lloyds to it?

Or open Two Tesco Savings accounts for your DDs?

Tesco also offer current account paying 3%.

Or you could consider TSB?

Best to research your options before doing anything?

http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/banking/compare-best-bank-accounts

Westie983

Halifax £125 to switch a account has only just started and haven't been given a end date yet, not sure where you heard about it ending in October, as per all of the incentives that have been offered since January 2012, they are limited and will stop and start, but I would think it would be running for at least till christmas as the last incentive of £100, ran for eight months.... (ish)

YorkshireBoy

Westie983 wrote: »

Halifax £125 to switch a account has only just started and haven't been given a end date yet, not sure where you heard about it ending in October

It's on your employer's website homepage!...

£125 for switching - use the Current Account Switch Service by 18th October 2015 to transfer and close your old account held elsewhere.


www.halifax.co.uk

And on the Reward account application preamble...

£125 extra when you switch to us - start your switch by 18th October 2015.


http://www.halifax.co.uk/bankaccounts/current-accounts/reward-current-account/

And in the switching offer T&Cs...

1. The offer applies to applications received in branch, online or by phone between 7th September 2015 and 18th October 2015.

They'll probably get around to telling the staff at some point.

Westie983

and maybe update the in store posters then...

Im sure it just means it will go back to £100 lets see what happens....

and yes it would be good to be told the dates, but that said Im not involved in the switching process so maybe those staff members are in the know...

I am now informed, thanks for the update YB :-)

Krash420

I would consider keeping the Halifax account longer term. You can always open an "everyday current account" with Santander now (before switching), and then use the switching service to transfer "it" to your Lloyds account. Nothing will actually get switched because you have nothing on there, but Lloyds won't know that. You've used the switching service, and all payments to your old account number will be transferred so you've done enough to get the bonus.

Once that's done, just downgrade your 123 current account. Then move onto Halifax, and switch Lloyds to Halifax. I'd recommend you keep your Halifax account permanently due to their £5 bonus offer for which you need two direct debits and to pay in £750 a month. For that what you should do is do a "Partial Transfer" from your Santander account.

This is what I did when I moved to Halifax, did a full transfer of Barclays account (stopped using it ages ago, had no DD's or anything). and did a Partial transfer of my HSBC account (had all my Direct Debits going out, though no money coming in). This way your Direct debits will all move to that account (your pay will still come into it, so you'll need to move your pay manually to Halifax, or keep it with Santander, and just transfer £750 to Halifax and immediately return it to your main account, whichever that may be). This way, you can still keep your Santander account till you're happy that the transfer has worked as it should, and so you decide to get rid of it, which is when I'd recommend First Direct for their joining bonus, and if you really feel like it, leave them for their leaving bonus (are they still offering that?).

Westie983

you cant do partial switch with the halifax, its a full switch includes closure to get the £125 or any other incentive.....

no harm in opening a reward account and changing the DD manually though, as you will then get £60 a year when you pay £750 and 2 DD are paid out each month. As others have said the £750 doesnt have to remain in the account it can be transfered back out to Santander or Lloyds as soon as its been credited into the account,

My payments stay in my account about 3 mins each month to get my £5