The Top Easy Access Savings Discussion Area

innovate

Steve_xx wrote: »

The one single and one joint account that you mentioned applies to the Halifax Reward Current account I believe, not the Santander 123 account.

You are correct, and I have just posted to that effect on that other thread.

innovate

murphydavid wrote: »

The direct answer to your question is use martins link to moneysupermarket.com and use their excellent comparison engine.

In my opinion. If you were happy to use the Spanish Santander and theire dreadful customer service (it may have improved recently) and you were happy to use the Irish Bank's (post office accounts). Then you should not be bothered by NS&I (who are the UK government and used to run the post office accounts) or by any other institution that has the £85000 G'tee and are under the wing of the FSA.

Do you actually know what you are talking about? There has never been any bad report about the 123, and Santander UK, as well as the UK Post Office, have the £85K FSCS guarantee like many other UK banks and BSs. The big difference between the 123 and an NSI bond is that you get a lot more interest, thus inflation will erode your money by a lot less! With a 123, you might actually be able to keep up with inflation, whilst with the NS&I accounts you won't. Unless you win a lot in Premium Bonds, but chances of that are remote.

murphydavid wrote: »

Mind the conditions you need to comply in each account. I don't know but it seems to me that with more than one the fees could be greater than the interest?

Not if you are able to use cashback-generating DDs. But even if you cannot, the fee might not reduce the interest to below what you can get in other accounts. It most certainly is negligable if you keep near £20K in the account.
Plus, there is the chance of Quidco/TCB cashback. No reports from anyone yet who actually got paid, however!

Steve_xx wrote: »

You could shift some of the DD's to the second or third account. Also, if you have a Tesco savings account you could set up a DD from that to pull £1 a month from each of the 123 accounts.

Agree - - I do the latter. My no. 2 and no. 3 123s both have the same "custom" DDs from my Tesco and my YBS savings accounts. That was easier for me than shifting "real" DDs from my no. 1 123. The monthly cashback I get in the no. 1 123, however, is easily more than the total of £6/mth I am no paying in fees.

socrates wrote:

Officially you can open 3

Who made that "official"? I agree, 3 is possible, but I have not seen anything [other than your post] that says 3 is the max. In fact, I was told by my local Santander Branch that I can have "as many as you like".

Silky_Racing

Great, cheers guys. So it's just a case of me logging on to Santander Internet banking and opening a new account from there? (not bothered about cash back sites)?

Mr._H_2

Silky_Racing wrote: »

(not bothered about cash back sites)?

I'm not sure I'll ever stop being amazed by the number of people who consider ~£50 for ~5 mins "work" not worth it. Are there really that many people who earn £600 an hour for admin-level work?

Having said that, as someone who already has a Santander 123 I don't know if you'd be eligible for the cashback.

Silky_Racing

Good point. But can I really use one and get the cash without jumping through loads of hoops?

innovate

Silky_Racing wrote: »

Good point. But can I really use one and get the cash without jumping through loads of hoops?

I have applied for my no.2 and no. 3 through cashback sites. That was minimal effort for me (even with the advisable cookie cleaning etc). I have yet to get the cashback and if I don't get it, I won't mind - - but it's tracked so there is a good chance I will get paid.

I always apply / buy through cashback sites, as a matter of principle. Have netted over £2K over the years.

socrates

One another thing to note about the NS Account - you have to make a Self Assessment Tax Return when you have this account if you are not already doing so

innovate

Dominykassmith wrote: »

I'm just come over the forum area for an ask of the same topic running here .. but the problem is this is mid 2013 and the posts are of late 2011 .. is there any changes in the norms by the time or it's same like two years ago.. please quote ..

Not sure anyone understands your question.

dov

I messaged Santander if there are any limits to the number of 123 current accounts one can open and they said there are no limits.

I have 5 opened and number 6 is on the way. I've also opend loads for the rest of the family.

All have been done through Quidco and TCB, though I'm not certain how many if any will be paid out.

• Not all have tracked (I will raise tickets for all of these)
• T&Cs for TCB require switching bank accounts - I don't know if setting up the required 2 DDs manually count
• Quidco only allow 1 cashback per Stantander product. I already had a 123 account via TCB before applying through Quidco and this may somehow disqualify me.

I've setup Tesco DDs on each and will setup Standing Orders between Lloyds and Stantander for the £500 funding.

socrates

Just make sure you don't go above £85k in any one name