Joint Account thoughts

Rose0410

So my husband and I have had a Santander 123 joint account for around 8 years but looking at the app it suggests I've only made about £100 with the cashback in that time. Is it worth sticking with it? Or should I move to something like Barcleys or First Direct and just remove the cashback element altogether? I also have a cashback card with Utility Warehouse who provide my energy that gives me anything between 1 and 7% depending on where I'm shopping so it really would just be the cashback on "bills" ie water, energy, council tax etc that I wouldn't be losing 🤔 any thoughts?

WillPS

£100 is lower than I would expect, is that the amount after your monthly fee has been deducted?

Do you not pay your bills out of the account? If not, why not?

Rose0410

WillPS said:

£100 is lower than I would expect, is that the amount after your monthly fee has been deducted?

Do you not pay your bills out of the account? If not, why not?

That's what I thought! Literally every single one of our bills comes out that account so I'm not sure what's happening 😖 it's possible after the £5 (I believe) monthly fee for it... I know that they don't offer that account anymore so I don't know if that's got something to do with it... it's a bit strange 🤔

DavidT67

Santander has a calculator on their website to compare their current accounts.  You may find Edge or Edge UP now offer better value.

https://www.santander.co.uk/personal/current-accounts/santander-edge-up-current-account#heading-sp-a-22005-3

WillPS

Rose0410 said:

WillPS said:

£100 is lower than I would expect, is that the amount after your monthly fee has been deducted?

Do you not pay your bills out of the account? If not, why not?

That's what I thought! Literally every single one of our bills comes out that account so I'm not sure what's happening 😖 it's possible after the £5 (I believe) monthly fee for it... I know that they don't offer that account anymore so I don't know if that's got something to do with it... it's a bit strange 🤔

Can you tell us (roughly) how much your monthly energy bills and council tax and we can try and work out for you, then you can cross check over the last few months.

You're right, the account is no longer available to new applicants, so it's worth making very sure there's not more value that can be had out of it before deciding to move away.

Voyager2002

Rose0410 said:

So my husband and I have had a Santander 123 joint account for around 8 years but looking at the app it suggests I've only made about £100 with the cashback in that time. Is it worth sticking with it? Or should I move to something like Barcleys or First Direct and just remove the cashback element altogether? I also have a cashback card with Utility Warehouse who provide my energy that gives me anything between 1 and 7% depending on where I'm shopping so it really would just be the cashback on "bills" ie water, energy, council tax etc that I wouldn't be losing 🤔 any thoughts?

I don't believe that £100 figure. It should be a simple matter to go through some old statements and see how much you are earning each month. And yes, the only benefit is the cashback on bills paid by direct debit, but for most households that cashback is worth having.

I used to have this account but exchanged it for an 'Edge' account, which works in the same way but also offers a linked savings account paying 7 per cent interest.

steven141

It may be worth changing to a Santander Edge current account for £3 per month and opening an Edge Credit card 2% cashback on up to £750 spend per month (max £15 per month) and use that for your spending. Make sure you pay it off in full by the due date on the statement to avoid interest and until it is due you could put the spending money into an edge savings account 7% APR until the due date to pay off the credit card.

Rose0410

WillPS said:

Rose0410 said:

WillPS said:

£100 is lower than I would expect, is that the amount after your monthly fee has been deducted?

Do you not pay your bills out of the account? If not, why not?

That's what I thought! Literally every single one of our bills comes out that account so I'm not sure what's happening 😖 it's possible after the £5 (I believe) monthly fee for it... I know that they don't offer that account anymore so I don't know if that's got something to do with it... it's a bit strange 🤔

Can you tell us (roughly) how much your monthly energy bills and council tax and we can try and work out for you, then you can cross check over the last few months.

You're right, the account is no longer available to new applicants, so it's worth making very sure there's not more value that can be had out of it before deciding to move away.

So I pay £165 ish in energy bills which should get me 2% to a max of £5p/m, £45 for broadband and £129 council tax which should get me 1% to a max of £5p/m, £45.41 on water which should get me 3% to a max of £5p/m. So all in all the max I should get is £15 p/m... last month I got £5.95 combined with the 1% and 3% and the 2% isn't giving me anything at all 🫠 so complicated 😅 when I look at my account overview it says that since account opened I've made £150 🤔 hope that makes any kind of sense 🙈

WillPS

Rose0410 said:

WillPS said:

Rose0410 said:

WillPS said:

£100 is lower than I would expect, is that the amount after your monthly fee has been deducted?

Do you not pay your bills out of the account? If not, why not?

That's what I thought! Literally every single one of our bills comes out that account so I'm not sure what's happening 😖 it's possible after the £5 (I believe) monthly fee for it... I know that they don't offer that account anymore so I don't know if that's got something to do with it... it's a bit strange 🤔

Can you tell us (roughly) how much your monthly energy bills and council tax and we can try and work out for you, then you can cross check over the last few months.

You're right, the account is no longer available to new applicants, so it's worth making very sure there's not more value that can be had out of it before deciding to move away.

So I pay £165 ish in energy bills which should get me 2% to a max of £5p/m, £45 for broadband and £129 council tax which should get me 1% to a max of £5p/m, £45.41 on water which should get me 3% to a max of £5p/m. So all in all the max I should get is £15 p/m... last month I got £5.95 combined with the 1% and 3% and the 2% isn't giving me anything at all 🫠 so complicated 😅 when I look at my account overview it says that since account opened I've made £150 🤔 hope that makes any kind of sense 🙈

Looks about right to me...
£45 * 0.03 = £1.35
£165 * 0.02 = £3.30
£174 * 0.01 = £1.74
added together, that's a bit over £6. Takeaway your fee and you're about £2 up.

Popping your account details in Santander's checker reveals you're better off keeping your 123:

You'd have been £2 month better off still with 123 Lite but that's also unavailable now, sadly.

Unfortunately nowhere other than Santander offers you straightforward cashback on bills. Natwest/RBS offer a fixed reward for having any 2 DDs, but if you do this then the optimal route would be to leave your Santander account as it is and open that in addition. Going a step further you can open accounts with a number of banks and scoop up the monthly rewards from all of them - my wife and I earn about £55/month doing this (incl 123 Lite).

Something else you could consider to squeeze a bit more value from your existing account - ask your energy customer to increase your DD to £250/month; that'd give you another 85p/month, and they should refund any credit balance on demand. 

But the long and short is that you're not missing out on anything keeping your account as it is at some point I expect Santander will begin transferring existing 123 accounts to Edge, and then you might decide to change things up, but for now I'd be keeping things as they are with Santander if I were you.

Rose0410

WillPS said:

Rose0410 said:

WillPS said:

Rose0410 said:

WillPS said:

£100 is lower than I would expect, is that the amount after your monthly fee has been deducted?

Do you not pay your bills out of the account? If not, why not?

That's what I thought! Literally every single one of our bills comes out that account so I'm not sure what's happening 😖 it's possible after the £5 (I believe) monthly fee for it... I know that they don't offer that account anymore so I don't know if that's got something to do with it... it's a bit strange 🤔

Can you tell us (roughly) how much your monthly energy bills and council tax and we can try and work out for you, then you can cross check over the last few months.

You're right, the account is no longer available to new applicants, so it's worth making very sure there's not more value that can be had out of it before deciding to move away.

So I pay £165 ish in energy bills which should get me 2% to a max of £5p/m, £45 for broadband and £129 council tax which should get me 1% to a max of £5p/m, £45.41 on water which should get me 3% to a max of £5p/m. So all in all the max I should get is £15 p/m... last month I got £5.95 combined with the 1% and 3% and the 2% isn't giving me anything at all 🫠 so complicated 😅 when I look at my account overview it says that since account opened I've made £150 🤔 hope that makes any kind of sense 🙈

Looks about right to me...
£45 * 0.03 = £1.35
£165 * 0.02 = £3.30
£174 * 0.01 = £1.74
added together, that's a bit over £6. Takeaway your fee and you're about £2 up.

Popping your account details in Santander's checker reveals you're better off keeping your 123:

You'd have been £2 month better off still with 123 Lite but that's also unavailable now, sadly.

Unfortunately nowhere other than Santander offers you straightforward cashback on bills. Natwest/RBS offer a fixed reward for having any 2 DDs, but if you do this then the optimal route would be to leave your Santander account as it is and open that in addition. Going a step further you can open accounts with a number of banks and scoop up the monthly rewards from all of them - my wife and I earn about £55/month doing this (incl 123 Lite).

Something else you could consider to squeeze a bit more value from your existing account - ask your energy customer to increase your DD to £250/month; that'd give you another 85p/month, and they should refund any credit balance on demand. 

But the long and short is that you're not missing out on anything keeping your account as it is at some point I expect Santander will begin transferring existing 123 accounts to Edge, and then you might decide to change things up, but for now I'd be keeping things as they are with Santander if I were you.

Thanks so much for your help 🙏🏻💜 I'm quite savvy with getting my bills as low as possible but I'm still new to the whole bank account tips and tricks! This has been very useful 🥳

WillPS

You're most welcome feel free to reply back or DM if you need help with any of the other stuff.