Santander 123 bank account - anything as good?

t8769

Is there a bank account that offers similar rewards to Santander 123?
If an account has £20,000 it gets %1.49, plus cashback on bills.

I would like to find another account as I do not like Santander's website.

Is there anything as good out there?

Thanks

Zanderman

NatWest and RBS Rewards accounts are the only others that do similar cashback - but they are ceasing to do this from next year.

You can do better within santander though - changing to 123 Lite which has a lower fee (the full 123 fee is cutting into that interest/cashback) but pays no interest. Still good for cashback though.

For interest you can get about 1.5% in easy access savers (e.g marcus) so don't need to leave it in Santander.

Surely worth doing even if you dislike the website!

Neil_Jones

t8769 wrote: »

Is there a bank account that offers similar rewards to Santander 123?
If an account has £20,000 it gets %1.49, plus cashback on bills.

I would like to find another account as I do not like Santander's website.

Is there anything as good out there?

Thanks

No is the answer in a nutshell, because the closest equivalent, the Natwest, is stopping that in February.

And your 123 account does not get 1.49% at all. That's pre monthly fee. Your real return on £20k is 1.26%, you lose £60 a year in the fee.

You will do far better to relegate the account to a Lite account and pour the £20k into the top paying easy access account, Marcus at 1.45% clean. You will still keep the cashback, the same account number and it will only cost you £1 a month. You get no interest on Lite but the Marcus account will give you near enough the same "gross" benefits as Santander without having to fork out £60 a year for it.

DCFC79

t8769 wrote: »

Is there a bank account that offers similar rewards to Santander 123?
If an account has £20,000 it gets %1.49, plus cashback on bills.

I would like to find another account as I do not like Santander's website.

Is there anything as good out there?

Thanks

Whats wrong with the website ?


Its a much easier process to login than Barclays, once my move is sorted I'm ditching Barclays for good.

YorkshireBoy

Neil_Jones wrote: »

And your 123 account does not get 1.49% at all. That's pre monthly fee. Your real return on £20k is 1.26%, you lose £60 a year in the fee.

It's worse than that...I make it 1.19%.

t8769

Very interesting, thank you

The Santander website is good, but there is no search function. All other banks allow me to put in a name and search for transactions, makes running a business difficult.

I agree Barclays was awful, left them after 30 years, what a relief - just awful.

I see what you mean about the Lite account, it certainly makes sense.

Is there a bank account, at another bank, that offers similar cashback returns as 123 Lite?

Thanks



Thanks

Zero_Sum

t8769 wrote: »

Is there a bank account that offers similar rewards to Santander 123?
If an account has £20,000 it gets %1.49, plus cashback on bills.

I would like to find another account as I do not like Santander's website.

Is there anything as good out there?

Thanks

Dont think ive ever used the website, just use the app.
Why restrict yourself to 1 bank account? If you want to max the benefits you need to have a few for various benefits.
And as others have said the 1.5% on £20k is a bit of a con as theres the additional £48 a year (over & above the lite version) which makes a decent into the interest.

I have 123 lite, which is used only for the bills that are eligible for cashback
Then use co-op for small spends which earns just as much if not a bit more cashback than 123.
Keep emergency savings in marcus at 1.5% along with a few regular savers on the go.

Neil_Jones

t8769 wrote: »

Very interesting, thank you

The Santander website is good, but there is no search function. All other banks allow me to put in a name and search for transactions, makes running a business difficult.

I agree Barclays was awful, left them after 30 years, what a relief - just awful.

I see what you mean about the Lite account, it certainly makes sense.

Is there a bank account, at another bank, that offers similar cashback returns as 123 Lite?

Thanks



Thanks

I presume you are aware that your Santander 123 account is not designed for business use? If you are using it for business use you are running the risk of having it closed. Even if you're self employed the T&Cs don't allow for that either, you should really have a "proper" account, but of course you're virtually guaranteed to receive sod all interest on those anyway. Just letting you know.

At this time as previously stated in the thread there are only two cashback on direct debit options - the Natwest/RBS (which finishes in February) and Santander. Nobody else does it.

t8769

It is interesting that I thought I was getting great cashback with Santander, but actually, after you take out the high monthly fee, it was earning very little.

The NatWest Reward account is £2mo, from next year, with £4 cashback, so I earn £24yr.

Its £20 for an account with insurance benefits, but the same account is just £13 at Nationwide FlexPlus.

Zero_Sum

t8769 wrote: »

It is interesting that I thought I was getting great cashback with Santander, but actually, after you take out the high monthly fee, it was earning very little.

The NatWest Reward account is £2mo, from next year, with £4 cashback, so I earn £24yr.

Its £20 for an account with insurance benefits, but the same account is just £13 at Nationwide FlexPlus.

Depends which way you look at it.
If you make a direct comparison with the lite version then the cashback is decent. Its the interest rate thats rubbish. As you're paying £12 a year for cashback but £48 for the interest.

And if you dont like Santanders online systems, NatWests are really rubbish if you were thinking of switching.
Seriously just downgrade to 123 lite.

Fiendarina

Frustrating that NatWest is cutting scrapping cashback based on utility bills.
I used Santander 123 until it cut the interest, when I switched to a NatWest Reward account plus the Marcus account for my savings.
Now looking at switching most of my bills back to Santander Lite account, so I still get cashback on bills, while leaving a couple of other direct debits with NatWest to mop up the limited cashback available after February.
Wonder how long the Santander cashback on bills will last!