Santander 123 to TSB Classic Plus

stuarta99

Ok just managed to get some figures to work this out properly.

• 123 Current Account - £36/year after £2 fee and current cashback
• 123 Credit Card - £53/year after fee and current cashback

Realised I'm missing out on the 2% for Energy so added that in

• 123 Current Account - £41/year after new £3 fee and cashback
• 123 Credit Card - £41/year after new £3 fee and cashback
• Total - £82/year

• TSB - £36/year buying same fuel on contactless
• Halifax - £60/year using Clarity card for same shopping and their £5 reward
• Total - £96/year

Only unknown from this is the TSB credit interest and how much that pays. Found this in their Terms and Conditions

Credit interest Calculated daily from when you open or upgrade to a Classic Plus account (or if that day is not a working day, the next working day).
Payable
• on the first working day of each month
• on the first £2,000 in your account.

If that is the case then I always have the full £2000 in there on the 1st so that's another £100/year.

There is also the regular saver account which could earn me £70/year on the 5% compared to the currently esaver of 0.6%

Confused myself now

YorkshireBoy

stuarta99 wrote: »

If that is the case then I always have the full £2000 in there on the 1st so that's another £100/year.

It's only £100 a year (haven't checked your figures) if you have a £2K balance at the close of business on EACH AND EVERY day of the year.

stuarta99

YorkshireBoy wrote: »

It's only £100 a year (haven't checked your figures) if you have a £2K balance at the close of business on EACH AND EVERY day of the year.

Ok ta so I read it wrong. So although they pay it in the on the 1st every month, it's calculated daily and then paid the following 1st of the month. Not sure how I would be able to work that out then. I start with about £2000 and end with about £200 after all my bills come out at the beginning of the month.

YorkshireBoy

stuarta99 wrote: »

Not sure how I would be able to work that out then.

You'd need to have a stab at your average balance. Your monthly interest would then be calculated as...

Avg balance x 4.89% / 365 x n x 0.8

where n is the number of days in the billing period (anywhere from 28 to 34 or so), and 0.8 is the tax multiplier.

But maybe you're overanalysing things? If you've a full £2K in there all the month your interest is around £6.50 for the month. If your average balance is only £500, due to all your bills being paid just after payday, then it'll be £1.50 or so.

SnowTiger

stuarta99 wrote: »

Ok ta so I read it wrong. So although they pay it in the on the 1st every month, it's calculated daily and then paid the following 1st of the month. Not sure how I would be able to work that out then. I start with about £2000 and end with about £200 after all my bills come out at the beginning of the month.

I wouldn't worry about the figures if your balance is always £2,000 or under.

TSB's 5% interest is better/more than Santanders 3% interest.

Santander's £5 monthly fee will probably eat up most, perhaps all, the cashback you earn.

Switching your household bills to co-operative bank might be a good option. You'd get £4 a month for pushing £800+ through the account and having 4 direct debits.

Santander's 123 account was great. It got them a lot of new customers and shook up the market. It's looking poor value now for many customers.

Katiehound

Just be aware that contactless payments are not possible in very many places so don't bank on always getting the £5! I think you will need to check out all the places where you shop and buy fuel.
The contactless is a better reward than the Clarity but I really struggle to find retailers who have the newer technology. In other words you might find food shopping has the facility but not the garages.

Since you could have 3 x TSB between you perhaps the £3k could be split between 2? Then it would get 5% too!

stuarta99

Yep think I probably am completely over-analysing it. Messed up my figures because I thought Santander current was going to £3/month but see it's going to £5/month. Therefore at best I'm going to be making about £17/year (£1.4/month) after all the DD cashback which I'm sure either way whether I get pittance of the credit interest and not much on contactless, I'll still get more than that.

Especially when I'll have access to the Regular saver at 5% over the esaver

Santa001

stuarta99 wrote: »

... I start with about £2000 and end with about £200 after all my bills come out at the beginning of the month.

In this case I would rather open current account with Halifax and bank the £5 every month without worrying too much about the interest because you'll get peanuts from £200 (or let's say £300 average account balance).
You'll also get the £100 for switching to Halifax halifax.co.uk/bankaccounts/switch-to-halifax/

SIMPLES

stuarta99

What about best savings accounts. I'm trying to save about £200/month and have some stashed away in ISA that I need to sort

YorkshireBoy

stuarta99 wrote: »

What about best savings accounts. I'm trying to save about £200/month

6% is available, but you can get 5% with savings accounts from 2 of the current account providers you're already considering.

and have some stashed away in ISA that I need to sort

"Some" isn't going to get you any meaningful suggestions, other than "look at the links at the top of the page". So is it £1,000 or £50,000? Or something in between?