A few questions on savings and santander

dickdasdedly

Hi
Im going to receive £46000 in the next few days and want to save it by the following in the short term so its not just sat doing nothing. Not sure what i want to do in the long term.

When it comes to the 123 santander account it says you have to pay in £500 per month. Does this have to be by salary or does it just mean any payment into the account. Also can i just open the account or do i have to use the 7 day switch to get the benefits.

Im thinking of opening the 123 santander account and using it as my current account. Depositing £20000 in for the 3%, paying in at least £500 and set up the direct debits for my utilities phone ext.

I already have a TSB classic plus account which my salary is paid into and i use as my main bank at present. Its also the only bank in my village so would like to keep it because of that. I will put £2000 in there and use the linked 5% regular saver for the first yr.

i will also put £15240 into the best ISA i can find before the end of march and in the new tax yr put the remaining cash minus what I will need to cover the regular saver for the yr.

I also have a halifax currant account i put monthly deposits into for the up keep and running of my car and rent ext and i also have and Nationwide flex account i use as my holiday bank as the debit card was and credit card are good in Europe. I could use one of these as a switch if needed.

If anyone can answer the santander question or give some advise if i could do better id love to here it.

PS. Just a little info on me. Im 55 just, rent dont own my home and fetch home at least £1500 a month and i think my age goes against me re getting another mortgage plus would need to lend a similar amount to what ive got again to get a decent house in the Yorkshire area.
Thanks in advance.
Richard W

Eco_Miser

The £500 can come from anywhere except your other Santander accounts (if any), and can be split into multiple deposits if more convenient to you.

You can just open the account.

While the TSB Regular Saver matures after a year, there is nothing currently stopping you opening another one when that happens. I'm on my second.

I hope you're getting £5 a month reward for your Halifax current account, it's almost free money.

Have you had a Nationwide FlexDirect in the last 12 months? If not, open one, and get 5% on another £2500, and on £500 a month in their regular saver.

Also consider Club Lloyds for 4% on £5000 and £400 a month.

There are also other 3% accounts, which are going to be better than cash ISAs - remember you can have £1000 of interest tax free from next month.

Here's the link to a list of all those accounts and more. There's a little work involved in setting it all up, but it can then run automatically.

dickdasdedly

Thanks Eco miser
No on the Halifax money so will look into that.
Had the nationwide for probably 10yrs. Didn't realize you could have more than one and also thought you had to be paying into the account for at least 4 months before you qualified for any benefits. ive never real used it other than as a holiday bank.
i have been looking around this site this evening and will look at probably other interest paying currant accounts before putting into an ISA

Eco_Miser

There's lots of threads about the various accounts, read them, and read the actual T&Cs for the accounts - each one is subtly different.