Santander to slash 123 account interest and shake up overdrafts

Neil_Jones

schiff wrote: »

I suppose you could request it via secure message?

There is a link on the right hand side when you're logged in, "Upgrade current account". Use that.

ColdIron

schiff wrote: »

Has MSE - in the person of ColdIron - coined a new epithet in 'full fat 123'?

I think that the account going forward from May should be know as the Semi-Skimmed 123

schiff

Notified of a secure message from TSB this morning and my heart sank. But it was only my monthly statement.

fozz010

Any advice on what to do with my 10k in Santander 123? I have a mortgage with them as well and also a regular saver (£200 a month)
Thanks in advance.

fun4everyone

fozz010 wrote: »

Any advice on what to do with my 10k in Santander 123? I have a mortgage with them as well and also a regular saver (£200 a month)
Thanks in advance.

Turn it to lite and transfer your £10k to Marcus (or similar competitive easy access account). Keep only enough in your 123 lite to pay the bills/mortgage and whatever day to day needs you have. Continue to enjoy cashback on bills/mortgage there and interest on the £10k in Marcus plus the regular saver on Santander (you will still qualify for it with Lite). You will also now only pay £1 per month for your account instead of £5.

Don't worry about changing to Lite, account no and sort code stays the same and nothing at all is disturbed.

janbeno

Sad_Dad wrote: »

Typical, I changed my S123 from Lite to Standard last week to get the 1.5%. I will revert back in May and find somewhere else for my 20K.

We are in a 123 full at mo, did a workup and as we are getting £6.75 cashback, we will probably go to the Lite version at least we will be £5.75 up. I will move our £20k to a higher interest paying savings account.

janbeno

fun4everyone wrote: »

Turn it to lite and transfer your £10k to Marcus (or similar competitive easy access account). Keep only enough in your 123 lite to pay the bills/mortgage and whatever day to day needs you have. Continue to enjoy cashback on bills/mortgage there and interest on the £10k in Marcus plus the regular saver on Santander (you will still qualify for it with Lite). You will also now only pay £1 per month for your account instead of £5.

Don't worry about changing to Lite, account no and sort code stays the same and nothing at all is disturbed.

Quick point. Working out when to switch to Lite so I don't incur 2 charges. When's the best time to switch?

JimmyTheWig

colsten wrote: »

It's 1.5% for me, regardless of how much I have in the account, as my cashback always reliably pays the account fee. Yes, I know I would get the same amount of cashback for £4/mth less but then I'd get 0% interest on some fairly large amounts and/or would have to manually refill several times a month, and still I'd be at permanent risk of going overdrawn, particularly when the monthly credit card bills hit. With the new overdraft charges, avoiding overdrafts becomes even more important to me. I'll continue to use the full-fat 123 when they drop the rate, albeit with a permanently reduced max balance.

Yes, it's definitely convenient having a current account that you can guarantee having money to make any payment. Am now in the process of deciding if it is worth it.

fun4everyone

janbeno wrote: »

Quick point. Working out when to switch to Lite so I don't incur 2 charges. When's the best time to switch?

That is a good question, you could phone and ask. I doubt you will incur two charges (from my personal experience of how it works) but there might be an optimal date to do the switch.

I did this switch about a year ago, they change the monthly birthday date of your account to the day you change to lite (IE if you previously got paid interest/paid the fee on the 20th but switch to lite on the 4th your accounts monthly birthday now becomes the 4th). I got given the interest I was due up to the date I changed but did not pay any account fee until a month after I moved to lite (when I was debited £1 instead of £5). So effectively between the 20th and 4th I got the account for free. If that is all correct I should have made the change a couple of days before the monthly birthday of the account around the 18th or 19th. Best to phone and ask though.

janbeno

colsten wrote: »

It's 1.5% for me, regardless of how much I have in the account, as my cashback always reliably pays the account fee. Yes, I know I would get the same amount of cashback for £4/mth less but then I'd get 0% interest on some fairly large amounts and/or would have to manually refill several times a month, and still I'd be at permanent risk of going overdrawn, particularly when the monthly credit card bills hit. With the new overdraft charges, avoiding overdrafts becomes even more important to me. I'll continue to use the full-fat 123 when they drop the rate, albeit with a permanently reduced max balance.

After May 5th it is dropping to 1% it's 1.5% at the mo?