Switching from Santander, thoughts?

Super_Whiskey

I bank with Santander at the moment and have worked out that with the new fee, I'll 'only' be earning £129~ cashback per year. At the moment, I keep about £5k in the account however I am looking to start putting money aside in a HTB ISA so I just wanted to run through what I was thinking and seeing what everyone's thoughts were on switching and making the most of my money.

First off, I was looking to switch everything to First Direct to earn the £150 switching bonus. It's obviously not relevant but there's no direct debit minimum as far as I can see?

Once that's done, I would open up an account with Natwest and transfer all my direct debits over to there to make use of the reward account cashback and possibly take out a HTB ISA with them. I probably won't have the spare cash to fund that and the first direct regular saver, I'd rather get the £50 bonus from the government which will outweigh 6% interest.

The only thing is having a credit card to spend and pay off each month. Natwest's one refunds the annual fee with the reward account and pays cashback which will be minimal as I only spend about £250 a month on my current one. Are there any other alternatives out there?

Once the dust is settled from all of the above, I might also need an account which pays a decent amount of interest for a low balance so also thinking TSB or Nationwide for that perhaps?

Thoughts?

GTR_King

I suggest TSB Classic Plus as you can keep that for as long as you like....

It will always stay 5%

but nationwide is 5% for the year only then it goes down to 1%

but you both get 5/6% savings accounts with both TSB/Nationwide

TSB Give you cash back on purchase's I think

isn't it a bit of a hassle to open First Direct then nationwide??

colsten

Super_Whiskey wrote: »

Once that's done, I would open up an account with Natwest and transfer all my direct debits over to there to make use of the reward account cashback and possibly take out a HTB ISA with them.

Why have the HTB ISA with Natwest (2%) when you can have one at Halifax (4%)?

colsten

GTR_King wrote: »

I suggest TSB Classic Plus as you can keep that for as long as you like....

It [STRIKE]will always[/STRIKE] might stay 5% (rate is variable)

but nationwide is 5% for the year only then it goes down to 1%

but you both get 5%[STRIKE]/6%[/STRIKE] savings accounts with both TSB/Nationwide neither presently offer a 6% account

TSB Give you cash back on[STRIKE] purchase's[/STRIKE] contactless purchases I think. So does Natwest, allegedly

isn't it a bit of a hassle to open First Direct then nationwide??

I made some corrections for you.

Super_Whiskey

colsten wrote: »

Why have the HTB ISA with Natwest (2%) when you can have one at Halifax (4%)?

I know it's double the interest but, ironically, I think it's down to laziness! I'll look to see if it can all be done online!

20aday

colsten wrote: »

I made some corrections for you.

In terms of NatWest I believe it's currently 1% on contactless purchases?

Super_Whiskey

20aday wrote: »

In terms of NatWest I believe it's currently 1% on contactless purchases?

Yeah reading in to it, that's on until the end of June.


In regards to the Halfiax ISA, looks like I can open it up online so no excuse really!

Time to getthe ball rolling I guess.

Super_Whiskey

So I've opened up a duplicate account with my current bank and just activated the debit card, there's nothing stopping me from starting a switch to first direct is there?

YorkshireBoy

Super_Whiskey wrote: »

So I've opened up a duplicate account with my current bank and just activated the debit card, there's nothing stopping me from starting a switch to first direct is there?

I'd be depositing some cash first, and setting up a couple of SOs and 2 or 3 bill payments, just for a little authenticity.

You, and others, may choose to switch an empty account with no transactional history, no payees, and only recently opened.

Each to their own.

Super_Whiskey

Why's that? While technically I can't think of much wrong with doing that, do you think it's not kosher?

YorkshireBoy

Super_Whiskey wrote: »

Why's that? While technically I can't think of much wrong with doing that, do you think it's not kosher?

It doesn't matter what I think. But if there's a problem with the incentive and you have to chase it up (like I and many others have had to do over the years), you will certainly appear to have been taking the mick with a zero balance switch transfer and then £1K in/£1K out for a couple of months.

They may or may not pay out, but that's the chance you'd take.

And what if you decide to stay and pick up the £100 leaving present 7-12 months later? Do you really think they'll give it to you with a smile?

For me it's too much of a risk, even though - very technically - you've complied with the written word of the T&Cs. You've certainly not complied with the 'spirit' of the T&Cs.

Like I said above, each to their own though.