Santander 123 Lite doubles fee and changes Cashback

ColdIron

https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/news/2020/07/santander-123-customers-to-get-cashback-shake-up

Alistair31

Time to switch methinks, any banks offering cashback to switch these days? 

st999

The Santander cashback calculator is wrong, I put in £227.50 for my council tax and it says I get £1.90 cashback.
I will still get back £2.21 a month for all my DDs after paying the fee but as I am considering dumping Sky and changing my broadband then I will be worse off so I will change all my DDs back to my Vantage account and just have that and a Marcus savings account..

garmeg

st999 said:

The Santander cashback calculator is wrong, I put in £227.50 for my council tax and it says I get £1.90 cashback.
I will still get back £2.21 a month for all my DDs after paying the fee but as I am considering dumping Sky and changing my broadband then I will be worse off so I will change all my DDs back to my Vantage account and just have that and a Marcus savings account..

If council tax is £2,275 then this is £22.75 cashback per year or £1.90 per month. Did you miskey your council tax perhaps?

st999

garmeg said:

If council tax is £2,275 then this is £22.75 cashback per year or £1.90 per month. Did you miskey your council tax perhaps?

Ah! my council tax is £227.50 a month for 10 months.
I have been getting £2.28 cashback a month for 10 months.

garmeg

The change seems small, but ...
My telecoms bills (Sky and EE) exceed my water bill by £150 per month.
So losing £3 a month here plus another £1 a month due to the fee increase.
Only switched from RBS rewards a month ago.
Hardly worth it now.
Maybe switch into my main current account which has bills that would not be eligible for cashback as Santander Lite is probably not worth the faff any more.

Earnings on new basis ...
Water = £1.50 (was £0.50)
Gas / Elec = £3.00
Telecoms £2.00 (was £5.00 capped)
Council Tax = £2.50
Fee = - £2.00 (was -£1.00)
Total = £7.00 (was £10.00)

Probably worth keeping for £84 per year. Bit marginal though.

wiseonesomeofthetime

st999 said:

... but as I am considering dumping Sky and changing my broadband then ..

This was my issue too. Broadband already changed this month, Sky will go in December when minimum contract up.

My Santander account will be CASS before my November fee is due to come out.

Vortigern

If I downgrade from lite to ordinary, what happens to my regular saver? Time to dig out the T&Cs.

6022tivo

I've only just downgraded as well.... 
Getting very poor Santander.. 
I think Spanish customers still get 3% interest as well! 

MDMD

6022tivo said:

I've only just downgraded as well.... 
Getting very poor Santander.. 
I think Spanish customers still get 3% interest as well! 

https://cincodias.elpais.com/cincodias/2019/10/31/companias/1572542953_654808.html

My Spanish Is very basic but looks like they removed that back in November....

“La entidad ha eliminado la remuneración del 3% para importes de hasta 1.000 euros así como la devolución del 1%, 2% y 3% de los recibos domiciliados, como ha adelantado Efe“

wiseonesomeofthetime

@MDMD To confirm, via Google Translate:

The entity has eliminated the remuneration of 3% for amounts of up to 1,000 euros as well as the return of 1%, 2% and 3% of direct debits, as Efe has advanced

Reminds me of Manuel from Fawlty Towers