Santander or First Direct as current account?

SandyPeanuts

Hi. After many, many years of not doing much with my money I'm looking to switch away from HSBC as I'm getting basically no interest on my accounts. I have a HSBC advance, flex saver and full cash isa with them that I haven't touched since last year. I'm planning on getting a Santander 123, filling it and leaving it, (beside some monthly money movement to keep it open) but thought taking advantage of the First Direct switching bonus would be another good thing to do. I'd be using it as my current account, and moving any direct debits I can get cash back on to the Santander. Any excess cash I find myself with I plan to put into a Nationwide saver for 5%.

Basically, I guess my question is whether it's foolish to switch purely for the £125 bonus, rather than using the Santander as a current account? My circumstances are likely to change soon as I change jobs (potentially to a freelancer) and move cities, so I'm wary of having too many accounts or making anything too complicated.

Any advice is much appreciated.

enthusiasticsaver

I have both a Santander 123 and First direct and did exactly as you intend. We use the 123 as our main joint current account with any direct debits attracting cashback coming from there. We keep it topped up at £20k for the 1.5% interest which is not as good as the 3% it was paying but not many current accounts will pay interest up to £20k. I switched our second 123 account to First Direct when they increased the monthly fee and got £150 switching bonus.

Sounds like a sensible move.

[Deleted User]

Switch to TSB and get their new offer of £130, then switch to First Direct and get your £125, then switch to the co-op and get your £110, then M&S for another £125, then Halifax for £75.
That's £565 free money.

After all that you can put the maximum into Santander (£20,000) that after the monthly fee is taken will earn you £240 a year. (less than half of the above)

Sounds like fun. Enjoy.