Santander Select changes

ss53

Resurrecting this in light of a new email from Santander.

"Santander Select eligibility criteria

As an existing Santander Select customer you're still eligible to access the Santander Select service. However from 20 November 2017, to be eligible for the Santander Select service, new customers need to open a Select Current Account and:

- pay your main income of at least £5,000 per month into the Select Current Account. The £5,000 can't be funded by interest or payments from another Santander account that you're named on.
- or keep £75,000 in any Santander investment(s), savings or current accounts.
We’ll review your eligibility for the Select Current Account regularly.
If you no longer meet the criteria, we’ll contact you to explain your options."

So if you want to keep the Select benefits you need to open a Select account and switch to the black card. It's a little ambiguous however - its possible it refers only to new customers needing the Select account to get Select benefits.

Ray52

To be honest, I don’t really understand what Santander are doing with the Select Account. As an existing Select Customer I am being invited to apply for the new Select account. The benefits of the new account seem to be more or less the same as the former account except for an increase from £750 to £1000 for daily cashpoint withdrawal.
However, further down in the conditions it does mention that new Select customers must pay at least £5000 income into the account or have £75000 in savings with Santander. I can do neither of those things so does that now make me ineligible for a Select account? Or, are existing Select customers being allowed to continue under present conditions? It really isn’t clear to me so I will do nothing at present and see what happens.
It must be their intention to reduce Select accounts (certainly for new applicants) because they are setting the bar very high now (£5000 income or £75000 savings) which must be a small minority if it were measured against account funding by existing Select customers.

ss53

Agreed Ray52 - it is confusing. I wonder whether it is intentionally confusing to get people to switch to the new account implying (but not actually stating) they will lose Select benefits if they don't.? Like you I plan to sit tight for a while to see if it becomes clearer.

zerog

Ray52 wrote: »

However, further down in the conditions it does mention that new Select customers must pay at least £5000 income into the account or have £75000 in savings with Santander. I can do neither of those things so does that now make me ineligible for a Select account? Or, are existing Select customers being allowed to continue under present conditions? It really isn’t clear to me so I will do nothing at present and see what happens.
It must be their intention to reduce Select accounts (certainly for new applicants) because they are setting the bar very high now (£5000 income or £75000 savings) which must be a small minority if it were measured against account funding by existing Select customers.

I believe you don't need to do anything to continue being a Select customer, however at some point Santander will write to you and tell you that they are removing Select from you (as you stopped meeting the criteria).

Ray52

I suspected as much as I notice that the Gold debit card aligned to the existing Select account has now been withdrawn and replaced with a black card for new Select customers. My gold debit card expires in 2020 and as I will not be paying in £5000 monthly into my account nor have £75000 saved with Santander I will be ineligible for the new Select account. It may be that they intend existing Select customers to continue to hold their accounts until the expiry date of their cards or as you say Zerog, write to us to revert our accounts to the 123 current account. It seems remiss though that they don!!!8217;t address that matter in the !!!8216;help!!!8217; section of the !!!8216;new!!!8217; Select account pages.

Ray52

Why does the apostrophe on my iPad show as !!!8216? Weird!

EssexExile

Ray52 wrote: »

Why does the apostrophe on my iPad show as !!!8216? Weird!

The forum doesn't seem to like "smart punctuation" of late. I believe you can turn it off, or just stop punctuating!

Ballard

I switched away from my Santander account last week simply because the account is no longer the best place for my cash. The day before the account actually switched I received an email from Santander offering my the Select account but unless they increase their interest rates I don't currently see any attraction.

robatwork

The benefits of Select seem to be extremely niche apart from the very rare occasion I need to withdraw over £250 from an ATM - I can't remember the last time that happened in fact.

One of the published benefits is "Access to Select Embassy branches abroad"

Has anyone here ever actually used that, whatever it is?

I don't even like the gold card with gold numbers.

The irony of a preferential overdraft tariff they offer to their wealthiest clients is also a bit rich.

Not sure Select offers much really.

Newly_retired

I have been a Select account holder for a few years now. I did not apply for it; I was just migrated to it, presumably because I started moving large sums of money in prior to a house purchase.
Now, I just recycle various amounts through various accounts, but I have not calculated whether it is as much as £5000 per month.

I have a red debit card. I have never had a gold one or a black one.
Should I?
The main benefit to me with Select seems to be that I can get through more quickly on the phone and am well treated.