Santander 123 rate to be cut to 1.5%

Speculator

schiff wrote: »

I suppose it's standard practice by Santander to charge the fee on the same day as the interest is credited - it has been on my accounts. Which leads me to ask - is the fee for the month to come, or the month just gone?

As far as I can see the fee is quite separate from any qualification for the 3% interest rate, so what you have done doesn't cost you anything, I assume?

I was paid the full 3% up to closure and no fee was deducted.

Anneio

Hi,
Both me and my husband have Santander accounts which we are both paying £5 a month for. Can we amalgamate them so we just have one account, therefore only paying 1 x £5. Also is £20,000 the limit if we have a joint account?

schiff

Anneio wrote: »

Hi,
Both me and my husband have Santander accounts which we are both paying £5 a month for. Can we amalgamate them so we just have one account, therefore only paying 1 x £5. Also is £20,000 the limit if we have a joint account?

Maybe make one of them joint and close the other, or open a joint and close the two current accounts. Depends really how much the combined balances amount to.

The limit for any account to receive 3% interest is £20K.

What cash-back you receive also comes into it.

harz99

adindas wrote: »

If you read my post carefully, I am referring to people who have not exhausted other better options (e.g all better interest current ACs and RSAs, you will need to start looking RSA at 2%).

Also if you read the post from the beginning there are already a few post mentioning about Atom Bank one year fixed interest of 2%+ are available ...

Keep in mind there are reasonable number of RSAs paying 2%+ some with good flexibility, The one I mentioned previously Cambridgeshire BS is just example a lot more RSA paying 2%+ which allow people to open via post. As listed here
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/608697
I could name other, for instance BOS, Scotland BS (take £500 a month), etc

if you have too much money in cash and have exhausted all of better options but do not want to take some degrees of risk, then stay with Santander 123 with 1.5%. Just sit down, byte the bullets and watch your money is gradually eaten by inflation considering RPI is currently 1.9%
https://www.ons.gov.uk/economy/inflationandpriceindices

However I am pretty much doubt if there are many existing Santander profiles like these.

Sorry, but I'm not seeing that spelled out in your previous post, in fact some of the wording doesn't actually make sense.


Still remains though that a 2% regular saver at say £250 per month or £3000 each year will pay around £32 interest per year.


A Santander 123 account with £3000 in it for one year will pay around £45 at 1.5% providing you can offset the £5 fee with DD cashback, obviously the less cashback the less interest, until you get to the other end of the scale where £45 interest-£60 fee leaves minus £15 interest which is clearly less than a 2% RS account would pay. However I doubt that many MSE folk have 123 accounts and don't offset most of the fee with cashback.


You do realise that a 2% regular saver will not keep pace with inflation either if you use your 1.9% figure don't you.

Ballard

harz99 wrote: »

A Santander 123 account with £3000 in it for one year will pay around £75 at 1.5%.

Umm. It'll pay £45 ish.

adindas

If you just have £3000 in the account and pay £5 a month, no CB your capital is even decreasing

£3000 + £45 - £60 = £2985 after a year

Also the way people are funding RSA is to feed it from a current account which are paying some interest.

Keep Santander 123 open until after you have drained all of your money on Santander 123 to RSAs or move it to Atom bank if one year fix is suitable,

After depletion and you still have ongoing cashback, downgrade it to Santander 123 lite or move it to Natwest whichever cashback is greater.

Keep in mind.
There are reasonable number of RSA paying 2%+ few allow £500 a month

Nothing to prevent people to upgrade or to reopen Santander A/C again in the future when they need it.

Santander 123 rate is flexible. So after all of this saga (Increase in fee and reduced interest), could people trust them that they do not change the interest again in the future, especially in case if there were enough people stayed with Santander123

In the meanwhile people have missed the boat of with RSAs 2%+.

Another option is P2P for people who want to take some degrees of risk.

Other option left stay with Santander123 and bite the bullet ...

harz99 wrote: »

Sorry, but I'm not seeing that spelled out in your previous post, in fact some of the wording doesn't actually make sense.


Still remains though that a 2% regular saver at say £250 per month or £3000 each year will pay around £32 interest per year.


A Santander 123 account with £3000 in it for one year will pay around £45 at 1.5% providing you can offset the £5 fee with DD cashback, obviously the less cashback the less interest, until you get to the other end of the scale where £45 interest-£60 fee leaves minus £15 interest which is clearly less than a 2% RS account would pay. However I doubt that many MSE folk have 123 accounts and don't offset most of the fee with cashback.


You do realise that a 2% regular saver will not keep pace with inflation either if you use your 1.9% figure don't you.

Nick_C

adindas wrote: »

Santander 123 rate is flexible. So after all of this saga, could people trust them that they do not change the interest again in the future

Yes. The interest rate is variable. Santander have varied it, and are now paying BR + 1.25%

Still the best instant access account I can find.

Why would you not trust Santander? They've not broken any promises.

doublewhammiesallround

Im presently with Santander and have a 123 Account, I now want to move my savings to another bank with better interest rates can anybody advise me on where are the best interest rates at present. Thanks x

Vortigern

doublewhammiesallround wrote: »

Im presently with Santander and have a 123 Account, I now want to move my savings to another bank with better interest rates can anybody advise me on where are the best interest rates at present. Thanks x

http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/banking/compare-best-bank-accounts

That should save you scrolling to the top of the page

adindas

Nick_C wrote: »

Yes. The interest rate is variable. Santander have varied it, and are now paying BR + 1.25%

Still the best instant access account I can find.

Why would you not trust Santander? They've not broken any promises.

Good luck then for people who have faith that the interest rate will not change again after people have missed the boat of better choice RSA of 2%+, Atom bank and Natwest for Cashback. What is for sure is that with flexible they could change it anytime they want to. Keep in mind they increased the fee from £2 to £5. The BOE was only cut by 0.25% but they cut it by 1.5%.

Mind you there might be people working for Santander who will say everything to keep people put their money in Santander 123, well people have a choice ..