Santander £185 Switch Offer: 18/03/24

FIREmenow

pecunianonolet said:

SaveTheEuro said:

Lumiona said:

I have been with Santander for years but haven't had any incentives from them so I'm planning on giving it a try, however the website is saying that current customers have to do the switch in branch which seems bizarre.

Is this so that a staff member can review one's existing accounts with Santander and highlight how you never set up direct debits or paid a monthly fee on your Edge account (yet still qualified for the saver account earning 7% interests on balances up to £4,000)?

Good point made here.

The Edge current account was needed to get the edge saver at the time. 

There were many pages of debate concluding that if you don't set up direct debits the fee will never materialise. Indeed I use my Edge current account regularly but as I don't have direct debits set up I never paid any fee.

Santander says:

We’ll take care of your switch, using the Current Account Switch Service. 60 days after you tell us to switch your account, we’ll check to make sure you’re eligible and then pay £185 into your account within the next 30 days.

So, to me this sounds like from the day you initiated the switch, e.g. 20th March, they check in 60 days eligibility so 20th May and pay within 30 days after if all good. That would take it to 20th June (if they take the full 30 days).


The Edge page says

Pay a £3 monthly fee to maintain the account
Pay at least £500 into your account each month
Have 2 active Direct Debits

As I have to now set up 2 direct debits and have to make a £1500 one off pay in, it sounds like that for at least 1 month they would charge the fee (if I only pay in the £1500 in one month but stay under £500 the other 2 months).

With regular use above the £500 monthly it looks like that I should better calculate with 3 months of having to pay a fee. Once the incentive has been paid I should be able to move the 2 direct debits and the account should be fee free again?

Looks like the only other way would be to open a new Everyday Current account and switch into this one to avoid the fee at the expense of a hard search or accept that the incentive would be £176 (£185 incentive - £9 account fee over 3 months).

Does this make sense or am I overcomplicating things? 

I asked something similar on a thread about the Edge Saver when someone mentioned this no-fee loophole.
At least one person said that on one of their 123 accounts, which also has the loophole, once you have started paying the monthly fee it doesn't stop again even if you stop meeting the terms, so I don't think you will be able to start and then stop the fees. But haven't seen anyone confirm for the Edge account.

If it helps sweeten the deal, you can also get £25 from topcashback.

I've applied as the £185+ £25 + about £40 pa more interest on the Edge Saver than my other easy access means it's worth it for as long as the Saver rate stays competitive even with the monthly fee.

danco

pecunianonolet said:

Looks like the only other way would be to open a new Everyday Current account and switch into this one to avoid the fee at the expense of a hard search or accept that the incentive would be £176 (£185 incentive - £9 account fee over 3 months).

Santander say that if you already have an Edge account then you can't switch online, you have to go to a branch. I am trying opening an Everyday account online as well as my Edge, but don't know yet whether this will be accepted.

SickGroove

Morning,

I opened the basic everyday current account & instigated the switch from NatWest. However, as I selected the ASAP switch, the wheels are in motion but the two small direct debits I set up through smalldirectdebit are not yet showing on my NatWest account but are due to be taken this Friday, with my switch to Santander being next Tuesday...

My question is, if these two direct debits are not transferred over to Santander during the switch, will I still be eligible for the offer if I just set up the same two small direct debits, on my new Santander account...

If so, should I do it now or wait for the switch to complete?

Will i be ineligible for the £185 cashback if NO direct debits were carried over from my NatWest account or doesn't it matter?

Also, any way of viewing the long debit card number through the Santander app? I can view the pin but only see 4 digits of the long card number.

Cheers

superdayold

The Santander website has a calculator to show cash back you can get in each account.  I am considering moving all of our eligible DDs, that would offset the fee and give access to the saver. 

Or just go with the basic account, no fee and no access to saver. 

I think…
decisions…

danco

danco said:
Santander say that if you already have an Edge account then you can't switch online, you have to go to a branch. I am trying opening an Everyday account online as well as my Edge, but don't know yet whether this will be accepted.

Interesting. Whereas my other requests to open an account (to benefit from the switch offer) went through at once this attempt to open an Everyday account got the response "We’ve received your application and our underwriters are looking at it now."

Stargunner

SickGroove said:

Morning,

I opened the basic everyday current account & instigated the switch from NatWest. However, as I selected the ASAP switch, the wheels are in motion but the two small direct debits I set up through smalldirectdebit are not yet showing on my NatWest account but are due to be taken this Friday, with my switch to Santander being next Tuesday...

My question is, if these two direct debits are not transferred over to Santander during the switch, will I still be eligible for the offer if I just set up the same two small direct debits, on my new Santander account...

If so, should I do it now or wait for the switch to complete?

Will i be ineligible for the £185 cashback if NO direct debits were carried over from my NatWest account or doesn't it matter?

Also, any way of viewing the long debit card number through the Santander app? I can view the pin but only see 4 digits of the long card number.

Cheers

The direct debits just need to be active when Santander check your account, to check if you are eligible 60 days after you instigated the switch.

You cannot view the card number from within the app.

ClaraSolis

I had been looking at getting a joint Santander Edge account recently, as my husband and I don't actually have a joint account yet.
Am I right to assume though that I can't switch my personal TSB account (not a joint account) to a joint Edge account? As in, you can only switch joint to joint? Or can an account be upgraded to a joint account once it's opened?

pecunianonolet

FIREmenow said:

pecunianonolet said:

SaveTheEuro said:

Lumiona said:

I have been with Santander for years but haven't had any incentives from them so I'm planning on giving it a try, however the website is saying that current customers have to do the switch in branch which seems bizarre.

Is this so that a staff member can review one's existing accounts with Santander and highlight how you never set up direct debits or paid a monthly fee on your Edge account (yet still qualified for the saver account earning 7% interests on balances up to £4,000)?

Good point made here.

The Edge current account was needed to get the edge saver at the time. 

There were many pages of debate concluding that if you don't set up direct debits the fee will never materialise. Indeed I use my Edge current account regularly but as I don't have direct debits set up I never paid any fee.

Santander says:

We’ll take care of your switch, using the Current Account Switch Service. 60 days after you tell us to switch your account, we’ll check to make sure you’re eligible and then pay £185 into your account within the next 30 days.

So, to me this sounds like from the day you initiated the switch, e.g. 20th March, they check in 60 days eligibility so 20th May and pay within 30 days after if all good. That would take it to 20th June (if they take the full 30 days).


The Edge page says

Pay a £3 monthly fee to maintain the account
Pay at least £500 into your account each month
Have 2 active Direct Debits

As I have to now set up 2 direct debits and have to make a £1500 one off pay in, it sounds like that for at least 1 month they would charge the fee (if I only pay in the £1500 in one month but stay under £500 the other 2 months).

With regular use above the £500 monthly it looks like that I should better calculate with 3 months of having to pay a fee. Once the incentive has been paid I should be able to move the 2 direct debits and the account should be fee free again?

Looks like the only other way would be to open a new Everyday Current account and switch into this one to avoid the fee at the expense of a hard search or accept that the incentive would be £176 (£185 incentive - £9 account fee over 3 months).

Does this make sense or am I overcomplicating things? 

I asked something similar on a thread about the Edge Saver when someone mentioned this no-fee loophole.
At least one person said that on one of their 123 accounts, which also has the loophole, once you have started paying the monthly fee it doesn't stop again even if you stop meeting the terms, so I don't think you will be able to start and then stop the fees. But haven't seen anyone confirm for the Edge account.

If it helps sweeten the deal, you can also get £25 from topcashback.

I've applied as the £185+ £25 + about £40 pa more interest on the Edge Saver than my other easy access means it's worth it for as long as the Saver rate stays competitive even with the monthly fee.

Thanks and if the fee doesn't stop even if the requirements are no longer met it has to be a new account, which I was trying to avoid and was hoping I can just switch in to my Edge account. The extra £25 cashback will be sweeten the deal indeed. Going to a branch would be easy for me as we as we still got one, even a newly refurbished branch.

B0bbyEwing

Saw the title & fancied taking them up on the offer. 

Then I see on page 1 I'm to either go in branch or phone them up because I have an existing account. 

No thanks, can't be bothered with that. I should be able to just fill a form out & that's that.

I'd jump through the DD hoops but I can't be faffed with the other hurdles. 

RG2015

B0bbyEwing said:

Saw the title & fancied taking them up on the offer. 

Then I see on page 1 I'm to either go in branch or phone them up because I have an existing account. 

No thanks, can't be bothered with that. I should be able to just fill a form out & that's that.

I'd jump through the DD hoops but I can't be faffed with the other hurdles. 

Why not just open a new Everyday account online for a £185 payday.