Santander 123 account - Problems

funkycredit

eskbanker said:

funkycredit said:

Seems capped now as rarely changes from month to month.

Yes, they introduced cashback capping to £5 per category per month last year....

Ahh thanks - that makes sense 👍

wiseonesomeofthetime

colsten said:

... but I will definitely keep my 123 Lite for as long as I make a profit from cashback. As and if this stops, I will downgrade further to an Everyday account, as I want to keep the account number for credit history purposes, and I also have it recorded as a nominated account with several savings providers.

What I don't care much about are the Santander Retailer Offers - I made £32.32 over the last umpteen years from these, and I can't remember when they last had an offer that I could make use of.

I agree with both of these comments.

I make less than a £1 net cashback now, but still a profit.

Not had a useful Retailer Offer in years.

enthusiasticsaver

We downgraded to the 123 Lite last year and still make around £8-£9 on cashback against a £2 fee so as long as it is positive we will  continue with it.  Never had any other issues with the cashback but I think it is capped now so nowhere as good as it was.  The credit card is worse though as the cashback only just covers the fee so we will be ditching that soon.  We use it for supermarket and fuel spends but no fuel being bought at the moment. 

molerat

colsten said:

What I don't care much about are the Santander Retailer Offers - I made £32.32 over the last umpteen years from these, and I can't remember when they last had an offer that I could make use of.

Grand total of 50p for me.

robatwork

colsten said:

What I don't care much about are the Santander Retailer Offers - I made £32.32 over the last umpteen years from these, and I can't remember when they last had an offer that I could make use of.

Exactly the same here. I like most things about Santander and 123 apart from the CoP on the other thread. But I haven't made use of an offer for years. They used to be more general, now rather niche. The latest is

Earn £40 Cashback when you join Sky Mobile with any product over £30 a month and make two Direct Debit payments.

Even with the £40 there are hugely more appealing players in the market than Sky.

drphila

Alexland said:

I just took up the £75 cashback on a new Santander Life Insurance policy at the minimum level of cover costing me £5 pm (or £4.90 pm after 123 Lite cashback) so when cancelling it after 6 months that should be another circa £45 profit. I have been doing these kind of life insurance offers once or twice a year despite not needing the product as our employer already provides plenty of cover.

Just done the same, thanks. (Very little to lose since Sant + Aviva both already have my personal details though Sant sneaked in a mandatory requirement for extra personal data at the end of the application process)

As I've said before, you're great at sniffing out these cashback offers. Keep it up

AlwaysLearnin

How easy is it to cancel a life policy? Might give this a go too. 

colsten

AlwaysLearnin said:

How easy is it to cancel a life policy? Might give this a go too. 

Looking at the T&Cs, it appears to be a simple matter of cancelling by email, and stopping the DDs. The offer terms for the bonus payment are a bit vague though.

Alexland

AlwaysLearnin said:

How easy is it to cancel a life policy? Might give this a go too. 

I've done it loads of times from similar TopCashback offers and usually just phone them up and if they try and retain me (once they used a serious voice to hint that I might be letting my family down...) then I just tell them that it turns out I have plenty of life cover from my employer which is true. They usually even give a pro-rata refund on the policy's monthly charge.

colsten said:

The offer terms for the bonus payment are a bit vague though.

In what way are you concerned by the terms?

MACKEM99

Could I ask a question of those in the know, please  If a DD payment rolls over to the next month do they penalise you and still cap each layer at £5? 
Thanks.