Downgrading Santander 123 to 123 Lite

breakthebanks

Does anyone have any experience downgrading the Santander 123 current account to the 123 Lite account? Can you confirm whether or not you retain the same overdraft facility? And whether your sort code/account number and regular payments stay the same?

gt94sss2

Yes, everything stays the same apart from the reduced monthly fee and the (lack of) credit interest.

Neil_Jones

Your calendar month resets to the date of changeover as well for pay in purposes.

Lack of interest isn't necessarily a problem - easy access accounts now pay 1.55% clean, and your cashback should cover the fee easily.

breakthebanks

Great thanks both. About to put all the money that is in there into a mortgage deposit, so the interest rate is now irrelevant to me. The mortgage is with Santander though so should get 1% back on my payments to that.

surreysaver

breakthebanks wrote: »

Great thanks both. About to put all the money that is in there into a mortgage deposit, so the interest rate is now irrelevant to me. The mortgage is with Santander though so should get 1% back on my payments to that.

I overpay my Santander mortgage each month to obtain maximum cashback, then just have the overpayment paid back into my current account

TBC15

Is it possible to change from the Santander 123 current account to the 123 Lite account on line?

Nebulous2

TBC15 wrote: »

Is it possible to change from the Santander 123 current account to the 123 Lite account on line?

I think you can now - however you had to phone when I did it. Very straightforward, two minute job.

Bimbly

surreysaver wrote: »

I overpay my Santander mortgage each month to obtain maximum cashback, then just have the overpayment paid back into my current account

How do you do this, exactly?

soulsaver

TBC15 wrote: »

Is it possible to change from the Santander 123 current account to the 123 Lite account on line?

Home page/personal/ca/123lite/apply/ transfer Santander ac..

michaeldavies1

Why would you want to downgrade?

The interest is much worse I believe.. What interest are you being offered/getting?

eskbanker

michaeldavies1 wrote: »

Why would you want to downgrade?

The interest is much worse I believe.. What interest are you being offered/getting?

There is no interest paid on a 123 Lite.

However, its monthly fee is only £1 versus the £5 charged for the full account but the cashback is the same, so it's now more cost-effective to use a 123 Lite for cashback purposes only, while getting the 1.5% interest (with no charges) in a Marcus savings account. Provided it's practical to optimise the shunting of money around to satisfy the DDs when there's no longer an interest-earning balance, this 'Lite plus Marcus' model beats the full 123 overall by £48/year.