Santander 123 to 123 lite ?

metrobus

I have the Santander 123 current account for which I pay the £5 per month account fee.

If I choose to downgrade to the 123 lite account which only costs £1per month would I keep the same account number and sort code?

I ask since I have various accounts linked to my current 123 account.

Also what benefits would I lose by downgrading?

Thank you.

YorkshireBoy

1. Yes, same details.
2. 1.5% interest only.

Audaxer

metrobus wrote: »

Also what benefits would I lose by downgrading?

As the 123 Lite current account doesn't pay any interest, you lose quite a lot if you have had a decent balance in your normal 123 account.

Superscrooge

metrobus wrote: »

I have the Santander 123 current account for which I pay the £5 per month account fee.

If I choose to downgrade to the 123 lite account which only costs £1per month would I keep the same account number and sort code?

I ask since I have various accounts linked to my current 123 account.

Also what benefits would I lose by downgrading?

Thank you.

You would gain £4 a month in lower fees if you downgrade. But you would lose any interest payments.
So if you are receiving more than £4 a month in interest, I can't see any advantage in downgrading to Santander Lite

YorkshireBoy

Superscrooge wrote: »

So if you are receiving more than £4 a month in interest, I can't see any advantage in downgrading to Santander Lite

I suspect the advantage will come from placing the Santander funds in another account...even a c.1.3% savings account if they've already filled all the 2/3/5% current accounts.

metrobus

Superscrooge wrote: »

You would gain £4 a month in lower fees if you downgrade. But you would lose any interest payments.
So if you are receiving more than £4 a month in interest, I can't see any advantage in downgrading to Santander Lite

The £20,000 goes into a NS&I bond paying 2.2% so I save £48 per year in charges and get an extra £140 in interest.

Kim_13

metrobus wrote: »

The £20,000 goes into a NS&I bond paying 2.2% so I save £48 per year in charges and get an extra £140 in interest.

Go for it, assuming you have a cash emergency fund elsewhere and won't need to worry about a 90 day penalty to withdraw. If you don't, consider whether it's worth putting a bit less in for this purpose.

Obviously you'll lose interest on the money waiting to go out by DD, but it may be negligible. Otherwise the only loss may come if rates go up during the term as the 2.2% is fixed. In this case you could just crunch the numbers and decide if moving the money is worth it.

metrobus

kim_13

What money waiting to go out by DD ?

I plan just to transfer the funds from my Santander account or am I missing something?

I understand interest rates may and probably will go up but when is any bodies guess.

ceredigion

metrobus wrote: »

kim_13

What money waiting to go out by DD ?

Cash back on house hold bills ?

metrobus

I think you would still get the cashback otherwise you may aswell get the basic current account paying no fee.

Kim_13

metrobus wrote: »

kim_13

What money waiting to go out by DD ?

I plan just to transfer the funds from my Santander account or am I missing something?

I understand interest rates may and probably will go up but when is any bodies guess.

If you are downgrading to the 123 Lite rather than the bog standard free current account, I'm assuming you'll still be paying bills from the account to earn the cashback. Money for these bills waiting for the Direct Debit to be collected won't be earning any interest.