Santander to double 123 Lite fee and shake up current account cashback - MSE News

Jozefkuhl

MACKEM99 said:

ElizaSue said:

RG2015 said:

ElizaSue said:

As Sea_Shell has already mentioned, in Scotland and NI our water bills are incorporated in our Council Tax bills, so it looks like we will only have a Santander12 account from now on.  Did they not do their homework before introducing these cashback changes?  No wonder many people in Scotland want independence because this sort of thing happens all the time.

I am not wishing to be adversarial but am genuinely interested in what other things happen all the time that are detrimental to people living in Scotland. 

I do not wish to be adversarial either, and for the record I am not a Scottish Nationalist.  However, things are said on a daily basis by English people that annoy Scots (and presumably Welsh and NI people too).  I suspect that the English are not even aware of it.  Trivial example, I know, but the other day Peter Crouch described Prince William as the future King of England.  Yes, he is, but he is also the future King of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.  I would like to think that Santander did not know that we Scots pay our water bills with our Council Tax.  Maybe it's an oversight; maybe it's not, but it could be construed by some as discrimination. Just saying!  :-)

Perhaps like a certain Tennis Player Peter is proud of where he is from?

Not so "proud" as to ever refer to UK institutions as Scottish. To be clear, there is no title "King / Queen of England". Proud doesn't mean the same as parochial.

colsten

kevpc said:

well, i changed from a 123 account to a 123 Lite account and having put up with Santander basically taking the p**s out of us customers, need to move on. unfortunately, like so many others, i have no clue where to move to and have come here, as usual, to see what advice i can get from those of you who are/will be much more knowledgeable than I.what i need is an acount, somewhere in a UK bank or building society that will accept my meager pension payments in and pay the various DDs and standing orders i have out it should have no minimum pay-in each month and charge no monthly fee. i dont need an overdraft feature and am not bothered about getting interest payments as long as there are no fees.
i am sure these requirements have been asked for by others, so apologise if i'm late catching the boat, but what advice can you learned people offer me?
i do find it extremely annoying when these financial institutions use our money to make loans at whatever interest rates they decide but give us nothing in return. i find it even more annoying when changes are made that means customers go from getting something for keeping money in a particular bank then suddenly there are changes that mean we get nothing! i assume it's payback for banks having to refund customers for the fraudulent activities but they were making a killing for a long while, again using our money, not theirs, so whatever they lost wasn't theirs to begin with. i also find it annoying when they all club together to cane us, i practice they definitely wouldn't like in reverse!

anyway, MTIA

Just downgrade to a Santander Everyday account and all will be fine.

kevpc

tnx for reply. i have no idea what that account is. Santander seems to be more awkward than a little atm, using the covid19 as the excuse. i couldn't even register a 'secure message' today. anyway, i'll se if i can find that account listed and learn of it's capabilities. tnx for the suggestion.
i'm looking atm on the Santander web site and cant find anything of that name. do you happen to have a link you can send to me, please?

RG2015

kevpc said:

tnx for reply. i have no idea what that account is. Santander seems to be more awkward than a little atm, using the covid19 as the excuse. i couldn't even register a 'secure message' today. anyway, i'll se if i can find that account listed and learn of it's capabilities. tnx for the suggestion.
i'm looking atm on the Santander web site and cant find anything of that name. do you happen to have a link you can send to me, please?

https://www.santander.co.uk/personal/current-accounts/everyday-current-account

kevpc

ok, i found it. had to do a google search, not a Santander web site search. i haven't found as yet any info that it will continue to pay my monthly DDs and Standing Orders. can you tell me if that still happens? that is important to me. i see that there's no minimum monthly payment to be made and no fee for having the account. 2 very important features, i think.
although it appears that a debit card and a cash card are supplied with this account, that salaries etc can be paid in, cheques can be  written, it hasn't mentioned the DD or SO payments or transferring money to different bank accounts outside of Santander, nor on-line banking. got a few things to try to find out. that is going to be tricky as Santander seems to want to only use the 'virtual assistant. i'll find out tomorrow, i guess
tnx for the suggestion and i'll post back what, if anything, i manage to find out
ps
what's happened to the email notification when replies are posted? i've lost that as well. must be my age!

D3xt3r5L4b

If you’re just changing the account/product type then your DD’s and SO’s etc. remain in place. 

colsten

kevpc said:

ok, i found it. had to do a google search, not a Santander web site search. i haven't found as yet any info that it will continue to pay my monthly DDs and Standing Orders. can you tell me if that still happens? that is important to me. i see that there's no minimum monthly payment to be made and no fee for having the account. 2 very important features, i think.
although it appears that a debit card and a cash card are supplied with this account, that salaries etc can be paid in, cheques can be  written, it hasn't mentioned the DD or SO payments or transferring money to different bank accounts outside of Santander, nor on-line banking. got a few things to try to find out. that is going to be tricky as Santander seems to want to only use the 'virtual assistant. i'll find out tomorrow, i guess
tnx for the suggestion and i'll post back what, if anything, i manage to find out
ps
what's happened to the email notification when replies are posted? i've lost that as well. must be my age!

When you downgrade to the Everyday, the only things that change are

1. the title of your account
2. you won't pay a monthly fee
3. you don't get any cashback
4. as you get no perks, there is no minimum monthly deposit requirement 

Everything else stays the same - your sort code, account number, debit card, SOs, DDs, online access, cheque book (if you have one) - all remain as before. People who pay you, and people who you pay won't notice any change. Your access to your bank account does not get interrupted. Of course you will still be able to do everything you could do with your 123 account.

I think you can request the downgrade yourself, in online banking. Look for Upgrade current account, then select the Everyday Current Account on the next page, then click Transfer a Santander account,  and follow the instructions from there. It couldn't be simpler, and it shouldn't take more than 5 minutes to complete the forms but the actual downgrade will only happen overnight.

stylus360

I was just about to downgrade to the 123 lite account from the Santander 123 Current Ac, then noticed the £2 fee!
I always hold about £3 -£4k in my current account (laziness).
I get under £2 in 'cashback' so thinking of just switching the standard Ac as above and moving my excess monies to Marcus savings or similar (think it's 1.2% now).
Is this a good idea? The 123 account i currently have is losing me money.
Any other options? I have NEVER switched before and have a lot of things linked to my current AC.
Thanks

colsten

If the cashback doesn't pay at least £2, you are absolutely right that you should not go for the 123 Lite. Downgrading to the Santander Everyday might be an option, or even switching to another bank. Halifax are offering £100 for a switch atm, and there's a monthly reward offer. Barclays, Natwest, RBS all have monthly reward offers that may or may not be of interest.

Be aware that if you use your Santander account as your nominated account anywhere, e.g. in Marcus, a switch away from Santander would mean you have to update your nominated account information. Might still be worth making the switch.

Doc_N

I may be being naive here, but looking at what’s available on the market, taking into account further likely drops on other accounts, and taking into account the convenience of the full fat 123 account, I’m not sure it’s necessarily a no-brainer to switch.

Depends how much you like to have instantly available for large payments, but a £20,000 balance will bring in £120 pa + the cashback to cover the £60 fees, and there are no accounts around I can see to match the convenience.

Sure, you can save a little by switching, but what price simplicity and convenience and very easy access?