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

afis1904

ZeroSum said:

20SmthngSver said:

I specifically opened a 123 Lite when I bought my first home in February and I pay my mortgage and council tax and mobile through it. I get £3.50 a month from mortgage and £1.07 a month from council, and pennies for my mobile.  It doesn't seem worth the hassle of the having the account based on this anymore.

I don't see the point in keeping the account past October. Give it another six months after, and they will alter the cashback again and before you know it, £3 a month (Barclays pay out £7 and charge £4, NatWest pays out £5 and charges £2). This change tells me not many are using the water element but it's costing too much to pay out for peoples media charges. My dads internet, TV and mobiles each month is about £150. Water is £30. It's designed for them to pay out less, while charging more for it.

If people close their accounts in protest, they will lose money. It's time people switched and closed more often to show they aren't happy. 

Natwest & Barclays can be any 2 DD's
Many of us on here run several accounts to maximise all the cashback
For me closing my santander account is just cutting my nose of to spite my face. I'll still clear around £3 a month

Also the natwest one, you lose a £1 if you don't have a brand new phone. And in my opinion one of the worst banks going for customer services 

The Nat West app will literally work on any phone that came out in the last 7-10 years, hardly brand new

ZeroSum

afis1904 said:

ZeroSum said:

20SmthngSver said:

I specifically opened a 123 Lite when I bought my first home in February and I pay my mortgage and council tax and mobile through it. I get £3.50 a month from mortgage and £1.07 a month from council, and pennies for my mobile.  It doesn't seem worth the hassle of the having the account based on this anymore.

I don't see the point in keeping the account past October. Give it another six months after, and they will alter the cashback again and before you know it, £3 a month (Barclays pay out £7 and charge £4, NatWest pays out £5 and charges £2). This change tells me not many are using the water element but it's costing too much to pay out for peoples media charges. My dads internet, TV and mobiles each month is about £150. Water is £30. It's designed for them to pay out less, while charging more for it.

If people close their accounts in protest, they will lose money. It's time people switched and closed more often to show they aren't happy. 

Natwest & Barclays can be any 2 DD's
Many of us on here run several accounts to maximise all the cashback
For me closing my santander account is just cutting my nose of to spite my face. I'll still clear around £3 a month

Also the natwest one, you lose a £1 if you don't have a brand new phone. And in my opinion one of the worst banks going for customer services 

The Nat West app will literally work on any phone that came out in the last 7-10 years, hardly brand new

No it doesn't. 
My last phone was about 4 year old & it didn't work

Needs to be minimum of Android 6, which wasn't put into phones until about 2016. And this restriction was in place at least very early 2019

Also to add it was about 18 months ago I tried it on my old phone, so we're talking about a phone that was only around 2.5 years old & their app wasn't working due to phone being too old. That's an absolute joke. 

wiseonesomeofthetime

Received my official notification of this from Santander yesterday evening:

Changes to your 1I2I3 Lite Current Account from 27 October 2020

 

We’re writing to let you know about changes we’re making to your 1I2I3 Lite Current Account, including changing the amount of cashback offered on some Direct Debits and increasing the monthly fee to maintain the account. We haven’t taken the decision to make these changes lightly. We’re doing it so we can continue to give cashback on household bills you have to pay, which we know is of benefit to millions of our 1|2|3 customers.

 

Here’s what’s changing

From 27 October 2020, there will be changes to the cashback categories as shown below. You’ll see that the cashback on mobile and home phone bills, broadband and paid-for TV packages is reducing to 1%, and cashback for water bills is increasing to 3%.

 

We’re also increasing the monthly fee to maintain the account from £1 to £2.

 

You should review the changes and consider whether this account’s still right for you

It’s important that you consider the options available to you and we want you to make the right choice about your 1I2I3 Lite Current Account going forward. To help you do this we’ve clearly outlined the changes we’re making below.

 

 

Account feature	Before 27 October 2020	From 27 October 2020
Fee for maintaining the account	£1	£2
Cashback   (capped at £5 per month in each of the 1%, 2% and 3% categories)	1% Water bills Council tax bills Santander mortgage payments	1% Council tax bills Santander mortgage payments Mobile and home phone bills, broadband and paid-for TV packages
	2% Gas and electricity bills Santander home insurance policies Santander life protection premiums	2% Gas and electricity bills Santander home insurance policies Santander life protection premiums
	3% Mobile and home phone bills, broadband and paid-for TV packages	3% Water bills

 

Here’s why we’re making changes

Since launching this account, we’ve seen an increase in the cost of offering the features and benefits. We want to keep offering cashback, so we’ve taken this difficult decision to ensure we can keep offering customers products and services to meet their needs balanced with our need to run a sustainable business.

 

The account still offers you the opportunity to earn more cashback than the cost of the monthly fee as well as access to the benefits of 1I2I3 World, so we hope you can continue to benefit from it.

 

What to do next

These changes take effect from 27 October 2020, so there’s plenty of time for you to decide if the account is still right for you. We don’t want you to pay for an account which doesn’t benefit you, so we’d encourage you to take the following steps:

 

1.	You can check how much cashback you can earn going forward by using the updated 1|2|3 cashback calculator on santander.co.uk
2.	You may want to consider whether you have other qualifying household bills that you don’t currently pay by Direct Debit from this account and which could earn you cashback.
3.	If you’ll be earning less in cashback each month than the £2 fee for maintaining the account, please consider changing your account.

 

	-	You can transfer to another Santander account. Take a look at our range of current accounts by visiting santander.co.uk/current-accounts. If you choose to transfer to another Santander current account you can keep your existing account details, including the account number and debit card.
	-	You can close your account without charge at any time. We’re a member of the Current Account Switch Service, which offers a secure and easy way to switch your account to another bank in seven working days. You can find out all you need to know about switching accounts at currentaccountswitch.co.uk

 

4.	If you want to carry on using your account, you don’t need to do anything.

 

Any change to the amount of cashback you receive will show on your statements from 27 November 2020. The date you receive cashback won’t change and is dependent on your monthly statement period. You'll be able to see your cashback on your statements and on Online and Mobile Banking. The £2 monthly fee will be paid automatically from your account each month from 27 October 2020.

RG2015

ZeroSum said:

afis1904 said:

ZeroSum said:

20SmthngSver said:

I specifically opened a 123 Lite when I bought my first home in February and I pay my mortgage and council tax and mobile through it. I get £3.50 a month from mortgage and £1.07 a month from council, and pennies for my mobile.  It doesn't seem worth the hassle of the having the account based on this anymore.

I don't see the point in keeping the account past October. Give it another six months after, and they will alter the cashback again and before you know it, £3 a month (Barclays pay out £7 and charge £4, NatWest pays out £5 and charges £2). This change tells me not many are using the water element but it's costing too much to pay out for peoples media charges. My dads internet, TV and mobiles each month is about £150. Water is £30. It's designed for them to pay out less, while charging more for it.

If people close their accounts in protest, they will lose money. It's time people switched and closed more often to show they aren't happy. 

Natwest & Barclays can be any 2 DD's
Many of us on here run several accounts to maximise all the cashback
For me closing my santander account is just cutting my nose of to spite my face. I'll still clear around £3 a month

Also the natwest one, you lose a £1 if you don't have a brand new phone. And in my opinion one of the worst banks going for customer services 

The Nat West app will literally work on any phone that came out in the last 7-10 years, hardly brand new

No it doesn't. 
My last phone was about 4 year old & it didn't work

Needs to be minimum of Android 6, which wasn't put into phones until about 2016

A four year old phone is not brand new.

wiseonesomeofthetime

NatWest app worked fine on my Samsung S7. Not exactly a brand new phone either.

ZeroSum

RG2015 said:

ZeroSum said:

afis1904 said:

ZeroSum said:

20SmthngSver said:

I specifically opened a 123 Lite when I bought my first home in February and I pay my mortgage and council tax and mobile through it. I get £3.50 a month from mortgage and £1.07 a month from council, and pennies for my mobile.  It doesn't seem worth the hassle of the having the account based on this anymore.

I don't see the point in keeping the account past October. Give it another six months after, and they will alter the cashback again and before you know it, £3 a month (Barclays pay out £7 and charge £4, NatWest pays out £5 and charges £2). This change tells me not many are using the water element but it's costing too much to pay out for peoples media charges. My dads internet, TV and mobiles each month is about £150. Water is £30. It's designed for them to pay out less, while charging more for it.

If people close their accounts in protest, they will lose money. It's time people switched and closed more often to show they aren't happy. 

Natwest & Barclays can be any 2 DD's
Many of us on here run several accounts to maximise all the cashback
For me closing my santander account is just cutting my nose of to spite my face. I'll still clear around £3 a month

Also the natwest one, you lose a £1 if you don't have a brand new phone. And in my opinion one of the worst banks going for customer services 

The Nat West app will literally work on any phone that came out in the last 7-10 years, hardly brand new

No it doesn't. 
My last phone was about 4 year old & it didn't work

Needs to be minimum of Android 6, which wasn't put into phones until about 2016

A four year old phone is not brand new.

2.5 year old. 
Might not be 'brand' new (yes I was using creative language) but the point still stands that they didn't support a phone that wasn't old, and that they're alienating customers who don't upgrade phone every 2 year

brewerdave

Did some fag packet calculations last night. Switch all my DDs to one Santander lite will yield ~ £5 pm after fees, and keep a second (currently) fee free account with Nat West as my back up in case of bank IT issues. Minimise the free balance in both. Close other Santander accounts inc. the regular esaver and move the excess to a new NS & I fixed account. Hardly earth shattering amounts but beggars can't be choosers. 

ZeroSum

brewerdave said:

Did some fag packet calculations last night. Switch all my DDs to one Santander lite will yield ~ £5 pm after fees, and keep a second (currently) fee free account with Nat West as my back up in case of bank IT issues. Minimise the free balance in both. Close other Santander accounts inc. the regular esaver and move the excess to a new NS & I fixed account. Hardly earth shattering amounts but beggars can't be choosers. 

The best cashback (and very easy to exploit loopholes) is Halifax reward account. It's an easy fiver

Mind I wouldnt be using Nat West in case of IT issues, they have more than their fair share. We use them for work & they are dreadful. Website always crashing, being kicked out for no reasons, numerous system outages etc

Be_Happy

Re the question of having to keep account open for Regular Saver, I think if the T&Cs say 'payments must be made from your Santander Current Account' you will have to keep it open (although it doesn't specify which current account)

[Deleted User]

Santander have been telling me for almost a year that they were bringing 'Pending Transactions' to Web based online banking.

This is despite the fact that it has already been on their 'Mobile App' for ages.

I don't need it often, but when i do, it's a very useful feature.

I was already thinking of leaving them and switching simply due to this, now, their fate is sealed.

Can anyone confirm that Halifax still show 'Pending Transactions' in online (NOT mobile APP) banking?

Ta.