Santander edge 3£ maintenance fee

FataVerde

I opened a SE account to get the introductory £175 so I also switched my account, set up 2 direct debits and paid £1500 into the account. I got the intro £175 and I have been charged £3/month from opening the account in may though October. They then stopped charging the fee. I am not earning enough cashback to justify the fee but would like to use their savings account.

I stopped my Direct Debits in the SE account and was planning to close the account and reopen one without DD and cashback to stop the maintenance fee. But I noticed they already stopped charging the fee after 4 months so the past 3 months I have not had monthly charges. Any idea why? They stopped before I ended my direct debits. And with the exception of the first month, when I did pay 1500 into the account to trigger the free cash, I have not paid £500 into the account monthly. I can't find any change of terms in my correspondence with them. I wonder if it's a glitch on their part or if I really am no longer charged the maintenance fee. 

If they no longer charge the fee, I can just open a savings account without closing and reopening the SE account. 

wiseonesomeofthetime

Is your account still showing as an Edge current account, or have they downgraded it? 🤔

FataVerde

wiseonesomeofthetime said:

Is your account still showing as an Edge current account, or have they downgraded it? 🤔

Still showing as Edge current account

Stargunner

I have a solo and a joint edge account and I don’t get charged any fees. If you don’t pay in at least £500 per month and have 2 active direct debits they don’t charge you the fee. It means that you won’t qualify for their cashback, but it allows you to have their edge saver accounts.

danny13579

FataVerde said:

But I noticed they already stopped charging the fee after 4 months so the past 3 months I have not had monthly charges. Any idea why? 

I have never heard of this happening before. Usually once you trigger the £3 fee it's charged every month whether or not you get any cashback.

Stargunner said:

I have a solo and a joint edge account and I don’t get charged any fees. If you don’t pay in at least £500 per month and have 2 active direct debits they don’t charge you the fee. It means that you won’t qualify for their cashback, but it allows you to have their edge saver accounts.

This only works if you never trigger the £3 fee. The OP has triggered the £3 fee. Once the £3 fee is triggered it's charged every month, whether or not you pay in £500+ and have 2 active direct debits..

danco

But certain direct debits qualify for cashback. They recently told me that over the past six months the charged me £18 (of course) but my direct debits, which were for council tax, electricity, and a few other things, amounted to somewhat over £15. I reckon it's worth it for their savings account.

What I'm currently thinking about is their credit card. I have it, with 2% cashback and £3 fee currently, which I reckon is the best value around. But the cashback drops to 1% in just over a month. I can also get 1% on my Chase debit card, without nay fee. At the moment I'm reckoning on keeping the credit card, on the grounds that it is more convenient (don't have to bother checking that I have enough in the account), there is a small compensating gain(payment not due for several weeks, so can be earning some interest), and provides the Section 75 protection. There might be cleverer ways to work, but they would probably involve too much effort in juggling things..

FataVerde

danny13579 said:

FataVerde said:

But I noticed they already stopped charging the fee after 4 months so the past 3 months I have not had monthly charges. Any idea why? 

I have never heard of this happening before. Usually once you trigger the £3 fee it's charged every month whether or not you get any cashback.

Stargunner said:

I have a solo and a joint edge account and I don’t get charged any fees. If you don’t pay in at least £500 per month and have 2 active direct debits they don’t charge you the fee. It means that you won’t qualify for their cashback, but it allows you to have their edge saver accounts.

This only works if you never trigger the £3 fee. The OP has triggered the £3 fee. Once the £3 fee is triggered it's charged every month, whether or not you pay in £500+ and have 2 active direct debits..

Yeah, I closed my account but they really have not charged me since November. I figured it's a glitch on their side so I'll just open another edge account without direct debits and 500 so I don't trigger the fee just so i can have their saving acct. Their chat agents did not seem to think it's possible to have the Edge account without the fee but indeed the T&C specify it's triggered. 

danny13579

FataVerde said:

Their chat agents did not seem to think it's possible to have the Edge account without the fee but indeed the T&C specify it's triggered. 

The chat agents simply read from a script. Many of us on here have Edge accounts but never triggered the £3 fee.

V3cash

FataVerde said:

I opened a SE account to get the introductory £175 so I also switched my account, set up 2 direct debits and paid £1500 into the account. I got the intro £175 and I have been charged £3/month from opening the account in may though October. They then stopped charging the fee. I am not earning enough cashback to justify the fee but would like to use their savings account.

I stopped my Direct Debits in the SE account and was planning to close the account and reopen one without DD and cashback to stop the maintenance fee. But I noticed they already stopped charging the fee after 4 months so the past 3 months I have not had monthly charges. Any idea why? They stopped before I ended my direct debits. And with the exception of the first month, when I did pay 1500 into the account to trigger the free cash, I have not paid £500 into the account monthly. I can't find any change of terms in my correspondence with them. I wonder if it's a glitch on their part or if I really am no longer charged the maintenance fee. 

If they no longer charge the fee, I can just open a savings account without closing and reopening the SE account. 

This has also happened to me, for the last 3 months I’ve not been charged the fee and was before, I only really use it for saving account reasons. I have 3 Direct debits and just add enough to cover that