The Top Easy Access Savings Discussion Area

macman

You'll need a minimum balance of £3,000 to get that rate though (and a maximum of £20,000).

I-LOV-MONEY

macman wrote: »

You'll need a minimum balance of £3,000 to get that rate though (and a maximum of £20,000).

... and pay £2 monthly fee.

innovate

I-LOV-MONEY wrote: »

... and pay £2 monthly fee.

Which you can easily make back (and more) in cashback if you have qualifying DDs.

There are also a couple of other pre-reqs for getting interest.

Dr_Dr

Remember that you get zero interest when over 20,000 in the Santander 123 account. To maximise the interest I try to maintain exactly that amount. I use the account as a budget account only. I know how much all my standard charges are (gas, electricity, council tax etc). I have direct debits to have them all paid on 15th month, the same day as I pay in £500 (from my main account). On 16th a standing order sends the difference between the £500, my monthly direct debits, plus interest and cashback back to my main account.
It took a time to set up but works perfectly; naughty but nice.

Steve_xx

Dr_Dr wrote: »

Remember that you get zero interest when over 20,000 in the Santander 123 account.

This is slightly misleading in that you would get zero interest on the balance amount that was in excess 20k, and you would earn 3% on the amount of balance from 3k upto 20k.

VfM4meplse

DragonQ wrote: »

Not only is 5 years a long time but fixing when the market is at its lowest just seems very silly.

That's what I thought in 2008. Bloody glad I did it though.

MarcoM

Hi,

I'd like to know if I need to switch my current account to them or if it is just enough to have two direct debits with them. Are they likely to push me to transfer to cc or not?

thnks

Archi_Bald

MarcoM wrote: »

Hi,

I'd like to know if I need to switch my current account to them or if it is just enough to have two direct debits with them. Are they likely to push me to transfer to cc or not?

thnks

You do not have to switch to them. 2 DDs are enough, though you are not getting the value of cashbacks if you don't have all your qualifying cashbacks with them.

I don't know what you mean by "Are they likely to push me to transfer to cc or not" - please can you be a bit clearer?

deepdale56

The MSE website has consistently understated the net benefits of this Santander account. My wife and I have three of these accounts, one joint and two individual. We also have one joint account with another bank. Six standing orders (3 x £500 both ways) created and two direct debits transferred to each Santander account (eg TV Licence, Council Tax, Energy, Mobile, etc) took less than an hour to set up on line. What we now have, in effect, is three instant access savings accounts paying 3% interest on a total of £60,000 savings. The online banking facility is excellent, being particularly easy to transfer money between the accounts to maintain the £20,000 per account.
I appreciate that many people won't have the funds to benefit from this arrangement but MSE keep reminding us not to have more then £85000 per institution, so there must be some.

ejv

Steve_xx wrote: »

This is slightly misleading in that you would get zero interest on the balance amount that was in excess 20k, and you would earn 3% on the amount of balance from 3k upto 20k.

Its still sweeter..3% will be earned for the whole £20000, not just from £3k to £20K:beer:
And as Steve_xx said, you would still earn this(upto £20K) even if you exceed the limit.:D