Last date for Santander 123 cashback?

JustAnotherSaver

I couldn't think how best to explain it in the title so on we go...

I don't know if this applies for all but my statements run from the 10th of the month.
Cashback is paid something like 14th. The monthly fee also.

I contacted Santander asking if i could close on 1st Feb (to avoid the monthly fee was my thought) but what would happen with the due cashback?
They responded saying the cashback wouldn't be paid if the account was closed. Fair enough.

So my idea is to let the account pay out it's cashback around the 14th & then close it.



Oh i should probably add that what i do is let's say i pay for fuel.
I fill up £50
I then go home, transfer £50 to the credit card
& repeat for every transaction throughout the year
Then come Christmas i have a nice payout.

Well this year i didn't have that cashback paid out to me as i knew i would close the account in February, so that's when i'm having it paid out.

So what would be the final date i could use the card & have it count towards the cashback paid out 14th Feb (or thereabouts)?

Neil_Jones

I closed my Santander 123 card on or around the 15th of November and still got the cashback for the previous month on the 23rd.

However my difference was I let it be paid off by direct debit, whether that has any bearing I don't know.

catwoman73

I've just closed my Santander 123 card. My statement date is the first and payment date about the 28th.

On 30th? December I sent them a secure message saying I wanted to close my account, which currently had a balance of a few hundred pounds on it.

They replied within hours to say that I could no longer use the card and no more charges would apply, but a statement would be issued as normal and once the balance was cleared, the card would be closed within 30 days - this made me happy because I was trying to avoid paying the £3 fee that is usually applied early in the month.

They issued a statement in early Jan including the cashback for December and this will be cleared in full as normal by direct debit towards the end of this month and then the card will close when they get round to it.

I have now gone back to using my Barclaycard Amex/Visa cashback card which pays 1% for Amex or 0.5% for Visa with no fees.

JustAnotherSaver

Thanks

catwoman73 ... so are you saying i should leave the balance (that is currently about -£200 (not the minus ... meaning they owe me) rather than taking it to £0?
If i take it to £0 then they wont pay me cashback for that month but if i leave the balance minus as it is then they will?

catwoman73

JustAnotherSaver wrote: »

Thanks

catwoman73 ... so are you saying i should leave the balance (that is currently about -£200 (not the minus ... meaning they owe me) rather than taking it to £0?
If i take it to £0 then they wont pay me cashback for that month but if i leave the balance minus as it is then they will?

No, I'm not saying that. I owed Santander, I was just noting my experience of closing my account, receiving cashback and the fact that they didn't apply the fee for January once I had told them in December I wanted to close the account.

I use my credit card in the normal way where I use it for spending and then pay it all off in full by direct debit each month so my card is never in credit and I don't usually send any other money to the account between monthly payments, which to me seems a bit too much effort and to defeat the object of using a credit card somewhat.

I don't think anyone needs to worry about being diddled on cashback once they have notified Santander that they have closed the account and it seems very fair of them to not charge the monthly fee once you have sent the closure notification.

I think there has been a bit of overthinking on here about tactics for closing the card without losing out judging on some of the threads, but for once it seems to have been quite straightforward and fair.

blitzboy

Does the cashback relate to the current month's spend or is it a month behind? For example if your next statement is due on 10th January, would the cashback for December to January be included on that statement or would you need to wait until 10th Feb statement for it to be paid or would it show up immediately on the 14th?


I would have thought that you could close it and the end of January and they would pay the cashback earned up to then after the 10th Feb statement is issued, leaving the difference to be paid off?