Marcus is live!

ColdIron

NoviceAngel wrote: »

When my Marcus application has gone through verification and I can finally use it I’m taking other posters advice and changing my Santander Select to a Santander lite.

I’m lucky enough to have just under £20k in Santander Select. My interest, cashback and £5 monthly fee always hit the account together at the end of the month. My question is - When is it the right time to downgrade the account ? I don’t want to pay £5 fee for another month then immediately downgrade but I still want the interest my £££ has earned.

I’m guessing that the fee is paid in advance for the following month? So again just guessing the right time would be just before the fee is due and any interest credited up to that point would be credited to the account for the final time, then transfer the majority of the balance to Marcus ?

Someone please tell me if that’s wrong

Thanks

I am downgrading my 123 to Lite. My interest and fee are paid on the same day which should be this Friday the 12th and as soon as I see them I'll be on the phone. I don't think the fee is paid in advance, my first interest and fee payments were on 12/03/13. Another poster said that they pro rata the interest if you switch between monthly anniversary dates but I'll be sticking to my original plan, take the interest and run

See post #25
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5903558/santander-123-vs-lite-are-my-sums-right

veryintrigued

Logan1paul wrote: »

ok what am i missing?

Some context for your question.

RG2015

NoviceAngel wrote: »

When my Marcus application has gone through verification and I can finally use it I’m taking other posters advice and changing my Santander Select to a Santander lite.

I’m lucky enough to have just under £20k in Santander Select. My interest, cashback and £5 monthly fee always hit the account together at the end of the month. My question is - When is it the right time to downgrade the account ? I don’t want to pay £5 fee for another month then immediately downgrade but I still want the interest my £££ has earned.

I’m guessing that the fee is paid in advance for the following month? So again just guessing the right time would be just before the fee is due and any interest credited up to that point would be credited to the account for the final time, then transfer the majority of the balance to Marcus ?

Someone please tell me if that’s wrong

Thanks

I downgraded my sole 123 account in May just after I had paid my £5 fee and received my full month's interest and my cashback. The next day and I received 3 days extra pro rated interest.

I downgraded my joint account earlier this month and was credited with pro rated interest and my cashback the next day. I am now past my original monthly date and have not paid any fee, neither £5 nor £1.

My very first monthly fees were paid one month after I opened each of my accounts. It does appear that by downgrading just before my statement date that I have avoided paying the final £5 monthly fee.

RG2015

ColdIron wrote: »

I am downgrading my 123 to Lite. My interest and fee are paid on the same day which should be this Friday the 12th and as soon as I see them I'll be on the phone. I don't think the fee is paid in advance, my first interest and fee payments were on 12/03/13. Another poster said that they pro rata the interest if you switch between monthly anniversary dates but I'll be sticking to my original plan, take the interest and run

See post #25
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5903558/santander-123-vs-lite-are-my-sums-right

Based on my experience as per my last post, you would be better off downgrading before you have paid your monthly fee. I downgraded five days before my statement date but I cannot say if less than five days would have made any difference.

I also cannot say if I will pay more than £1 for the first fee after downgrading. But I expect to pay only £1 at the beginning of November.

ColdIron

Well, based on the overwhelming evidence of two posts I've decided to throw caution to the wind and will phone them later this morning. Thanks for the feedback

RG2015

ColdIron wrote: »

Well, based on the overwhelming evidence of two posts I've decided to throw caution to the wind and will phone them later this morning. Thanks for the feedback

Be prepared for a long wait to speak to someone and then another wait to get to the sales team and then 10 minutes answering endless questions before the downgrade is completed.

All in all it took me 35 minutes on the phone. Good job I have inclusive minutes!

NoviceAngel

ColdIron wrote: »

Well, based on the overwhelming evidence of two posts I've decided to throw caution to the wind and will phone them later this morning. Thanks for the feedback

Good luck, let us all know how you get on.

ColdIron

RG2015 wrote: »

Be prepared for a long wait to speak to someone and then another wait to get to the sales team and then 10 minutes answering endless questions before the downgrade is completed.

All in all it took me 35 minutes on the phone. Good job I have inclusive minutes!

All done and dusted, quite quick and painless as I used the Select team (0800 number, I wonder if that will survive, I suspect I was only offered it as I did use my 123 as a hub for other paying pre-reqs so had a large monthly transfers). Acccont No, debit card and overdraft remain unchanged and I took the opportunity to move my statement date back a week as it suits me better. CS did confirm that any interest accrued would be paid so no need to wait and pay an extra fiver. Thanks again for spurring me into action

ColdIron

NoviceAngel wrote: »

Good luck, let us all know how you get on.

Easy peasy

NoviceAngel

ColdIron wrote: »

Easy peasy

Thanks for the update, I’ll be doing the same later this month as I have just paid the monthly fee. I also have a select account so hopefully will also get the same level of CS.

It will take quite a bit of messing around to keep a minimum balance on my new 123 lite. I’ll transfer my large no cashback DDs to another current account that does pay interest and just leave the smaller cashback DDs at Santander.

I wouldn’t normally bother all the admin for a saving of £4 a month, but the fact Marcus can do 1.5% without a fee, tells me Santander are not exactly playing fare anymore, shame because I’d had that account since Abbey days albeit with a different name and it’s always been my main current account.

Now I better give Marcus a call and see if I can speed up my account verification before I jump ship.

EDIT :- just phoned Marcus and it’s taking them longer than expected to verify some accounts that are selected for a random extra security checks, can take up to 10 days at the mo.