Santander to slash 123 account interest and shake up overdrafts

schiff

vigman wrote: »

Please help, folks, I'm really lost, especially as I have serious health problems (apart from current pneumonia!)

We have three Santander 123 accounts. One joint and a sole account each. I keep these at £20k balance.

I have the requisite DDs on these and get cashback on a few bills.

I'm totally lost as what to do now.
Vigman

You have a lot of time to play with. Firstly don't do anything till you get over your illness and feel more able to calmly take decisions.

I would follow the threads on MSE and keep notes and post references of your favoured ideas of what other people are saying and doing. That cross section of ideas and decisions won't be bettered anywhere else! By March/April you will have a much better idea of what you should do.

Best of luck

vigman

JimmyTheWig wrote: »

Simplistic answer for a single account. You could do this x3.

Scenario 1.
Stay as you are with £20k in the full-fat 123 account.
Interest on £20k at 1.00% = £200
Fees at £5/month = £60
Total = £140 a year

Scenario 2.
Switch to 123-lite, leave £2k in there and move £18k into Marcus @ 1.35% interest.
Interest on £18k at 1.35% = £243
Santander fees at £1/month = £12
Total = £231

So you stand to be £91 per year better off.

Many thanks for the clarity.

Both your reply and Enthusiasticsaver's rely on the Marcus account keeping the fractional additional 0.35% over Santander. With things being so volatile I'm staying where I am until nearer May.

Also in Scenario 1 there will be (up to) £15 money back over the three sectors that will pay a max of £5 each.

Vigman

vigman

schiff wrote: »

You have a lot of time to play with. Firstly don't do anything till you get over your illness and feel more able to calmly take decisions.

I would follow the threads on MSE and keep notes and post references of your favoured ideas of what other people are saying and doing. That cross section of ideas and decisions won't be bettered anywhere else! By March/April you will have a much better idea of what you should do.

Best of luck

Thanks....and I only came back to MSE to see where to put my Coventry ISA now that is dropping from my 1.45% to less than 1%!!

Vigman

maman

schiff wrote: »

You have a lot of time to play with. Firstly don't do anything till you get over your illness and feel more able to calmly take decisions.

I would follow the threads on MSE and keep notes and post references of your favoured ideas of what other people are saying and doing. That cross section of ideas and decisions won't be bettered anywhere else! By March/April you will have a much better idea of what you should do.

Best of luck

That's good advice. I've subscribed to this thread and will be keeping an eye on the financial pages and what Martin has to say in the coming months.

I've got a 'full fat' 123 account and a linked Regular Saver. I have almost the full £20K and a small amount of cashback. Suggestions welcome.:)

rufford155

I predict it won't be long before we are paying to have a current account as we did years ago.
It's all heading that way with interest dropping everywhere and overdrafts unaffordable.
But for the moment we should all think oursekves lucky here in the UK.
We have an current account in Portugal (Madeira) which charges a monthly fee and a fee for issuing a debit card - these totalled just over 100 euros in 2019 !
They also charge for any money transfers even within the same bank !

Zero_Sum

I do find it a bit odd all these folk with 3 × 123 accounts complaining about rate reduction when theyve already been needlessly overpaying over £100 a year in fees. And that there were any amount of accounts on the market that paid a better rate.

rufford155

When is everyone going to realise - including Martin - that these plummeting interest rates and rocketing fees are, by and large, the banks trying to recoup all their compensation payouts for PPI etc.
So now every customer is, in effect, subsidising those who claimed something back.
I don't want to be controversial but this is what I have concluded.

Zero_Sum

rufford155 wrote: »

When is everyone going to realise - including Martin - that these plummeting interest rates and rocketing fees are, by and large, the banks trying to recoup all their compensation payouts for PPI etc.
So now every customer is, in effect, subsidising those who claimed something back.
I don't want to be controversial but this is what I have concluded.

I think some of it is also the overdraft changes. Everyone is kneejerking over the 40% thing but its actually less than a flat fee on a small balance. And i actually think most who go overdrawn will be now better off. Its now savers subsidising the over spenders.

wiseonesomeofthetime

vigman wrote: »

Thanks....and I only came back to MSE to see where to put my Coventry ISA now that is dropping from my 1.45% to less than 1%!!

Vigman

I was not aware of that and I hold the same product.

Will seek out closer to April then as have a sum of money waiting to go in for next year's allowance.

Thanks

vigman

Zero_Sum wrote: »

I do find it a bit odd all these folk with 3 × 123 accounts complaining about rate reduction when theyve already been needlessly overpaying over £100 a year in fees. And that there were any amount of accounts on the market that paid a better rate.

Firstly, I'm not complaining about the rate I'm simply asking advice on what to do now with our three Santander 123 accounts after the 1% and reduced cashback kick in.

Second, for the time when we were getting 3% and then even 1.5% on the £20k x 3, the interest and cashback were probably as good as most mainstream accounts? I say mainstream as I would not put my money into the unknown Bank of Diddlysquat just because it paid 0.5% more.

I should have listened to my own advice here years ago about gold when I was buying Krugerrands for £400 and they are now selling for around £1800!

Vigman