Do you have to give notice to Santander to change 123 account?

skea56

I see they have taken the monthly fee of £2, I assume this is for the last time before it goes up to £5.

My DD's gave me £4.97 and i received interest of 94p last month, so do creep up into profit. However with the new year, I will be making an effort to minimise my outgoings, and so hopefully a phonecall to Sky should take this cashback down further.

I will be calling in with them today, does anyway know if I have to give them notice or is it just a case of switching the account over to a basic one?

sk56

grumbler

I am pretty sure no notice is needed.

Consider switching instead of or after downgrading.

Anthorn

You will most likely have to join the queue of 123 account holders dumping their accounts or even the bank itself.

You do need to call into a branch. You can't expect it to be done instantly but my guess is that it will be done after your monthly fee you paid has expired. My guess is that they will try to persuade you to keep the account: Santander was the biggest gainer of switching in 2015 due to the 123 account incentive and is set to be the biggest loser during 2016 if they cannot stem the exodus.

skea56

I have been with Santander for many years so I would prob stick with them just for handiness and downgrade rather than switch, but I will not pay them for the privilege - a rough workout of cashback and interest for next month would leave a deficit of almost 50p...not much in the grand scheme of things, but its my 50p!!!lol

skea56

skea56

Why such a big jump - I mean why not increase it in increments of say £1 every year or 2...no-one (or rather..most people) would hardly even notice. The CC is only increasing by £1 and I'm happy enough with that.

Strange marketing ploy...

sk56

Archi_Bald

It's a big hike but they can increase their fees by as much as they like (there has not been any increase since the account first launched back in 2012).

You are free to downgrade, or to leave immediately if the account is no longer value for money for you.

Kernel_Sanders

Anthorn wrote: »

You do need to call into a branch. You can't expect it to be done instantly but my guess is that it will be done after your monthly fee you paid has expired.

This is nonsense.

bumpercars99

Absolutely. It's total nonsense. You can do it on the phone effective immediately. You won't pay the fee or get the cashback for the part month.

Anthorn

bumpercars99 wrote: »

Absolutely. It's total nonsense. You can do it on the phone effective immediately. You won't pay the fee or get the cashback for the part month.

Do you have an actual example of that?

As far as I know changing to a different account is the same as closing an account and opening another account:

If your existing account is not meeting your needs, please go into one of our branches to discuss this with an advisor in more detail. We may have an alternative account that will be more suitable for you.

http://www.santander.co.uk/uk/help-support

In my own personal experience I attempted to close a current account over telephone banking because that action was not available in online banking. They refused on the grounds that I had to return my debit card and cheque book and I had to call into a branch with those items and photo ID.

numbers123

Anthorn wrote: »

Do you have an actual example of that?

My experience is an example of 'that'.

I called them to downgrade the account 2 weeks ago. After a 15 minute conversation, it was all done. The change showed in online banking straight away. I received the last interest payment the following day. I was not charged the fee or given the last cashback payment (only pennies anyway as only a small DD had paid out since the last cashback payment). I received a letter in the post this week confirming the downgrade.

grumbler

Anthorn wrote: »

As far as I know changing to a different account is the same as closing an account and opening another account:...

Well, why is this the case for downgrading only?
'Upgrade' option is available online, and I don't see any reasons why downgrading has to be more complicated.

The only purpose of visit to a branch when closing is to sell you some other account/product.