Worth switching?

Bigwigg

Hi I’m trying to work out if it’s worth me switching to the Santander 123 lite from my Natwest rewards account, I used to get about £20 per month in rewards from this account, but now can’t get as much. I’ve looked at the 123 account but it doesn’t seem to offer any cashback on credit card payments like Natwest does - I’ll now get £5 forDD’s with Natwest and about £5 from credit card purchases a month( on my £500 grocery spend). From Santander it seems capped at £15 total for DD’s (not credit card payments) , so I could only ever get £5 more a month , can anyone confirm what I’ve worked out is correct?

ZeroSum

When you say cashback on CC payments, do you actually mean cashback on spend? As I don't think natwest pay you cashback for paying the credit card bill. That being the case, you know you don't have to switch the CC. Think santander do have a cashback CC but has a fee, but also can get extra from partner traders (Halifax & Lloyd's also offer this). But might be better off with a standard 0.5% cashback CC

Bigwigg

Hi yes I get 1% cash back on my Natwest CC spend on my grocery shopping, about £500 a month, so £5 . 

ZeroSum

It's only 1% in supermarkets & 0.25% everywhere else (including supermarket petrol stations)

Do you only shop in supermarkets? 

Bigwigg

No I shop on other places, but I only put grocery shopping on my Natwest Cc

PRAISETHESUN

I think you're confusing the NatWest Reward current account with the NatWest reward credit card. The CA is cashback on household bills paid by direct debit whilst the CC is for any CC spending - they are completely seperate entities and not dependent on one another.

In order to completely maximise things you can open a Santander 123 Lite account (don't switch) and manually move across all eligible household bill DDs to Santander. Keep the NatWest account open and set up 2x DDs on it in order to qualify for the new monthly £5 reward. Make any other monthly spending on your reward CC.

If you shop for groceries at a specific supermarket, it might be more beneficial to get a CC that gives cashback/rewards on supermarket spend - it's likely to be better than the NatWest CC reward rate.

Bigwigg

Thanks yes for some reason I was thinking they were one and the same. I shop at Sainsbury’s, is the a CC that will give me a better cash back rate do you know?