Santander 123 account

Fireboss47

I'm considering opening the Santander 123 account to take advantage of the 3% interest rate. My question is in regard to the requirement for 2 "active" direct debit payments to be set up.
Do these have to be regular monthly direct debits or can they be for anything?
I don't have any regular monthly DD's but I do have a quarterly one and an annual one set up to the Environment agency.

badger09

Fireboss47 wrote: »

I'm considering opening the Santander 123 account to take advantage of the 3% interest rate. My question is in regard to the requirement for 2 "active" direct debit payments to be set up.
Do these have to be regular monthly direct debits or can they be for anything?
I don't have any regular monthly DD's but I do have a quarterly one and an annual one set up to the Environment agency.

The 2 you mention will be fine. Santander don't specify that the DDs must pay out every month. However, if you have any DDs which would earn cashback - eg Council Tax, Utilities, Phone/Broadband etc it would be better to use those as the cashback would mitigate the £5 monthly fee.

Have you already filled the 5% and 4% interest current accounts?

YorkshireBoy

badger09 wrote: »

Have you already filled the 5% and 4% interest current accounts?

...and the 'clean' 3% AER accounts? In other words, if you already have £30.5K in high interest current accounts, and drip-feeding/funding from income a couple of £K a month into 4-6% AER regular savers, and are looking for a home for another £20K, then the 1-2-3 account would be a good choice. Otherwise there are better options (in pure financial return terms).

Fireboss47

Thanks for the advice Yorkshireboy. I've already filled my 4 +5% current account quotas, and also have regular saver accounts but what are the "clean" 3% accounts you refer to ?

YorkshireBoy

Fireboss47 wrote: »

Thanks for the advice Yorkshireboy. I've already filled my 4 +5% current account quotas, and also have regular saver accounts but what are the "clean" 3% accounts you refer to ?

Accounts paying the same 3% rate but without the £60 a year cost of the 1-2-3 account, such as BoS Vantage and Tesco.