Santander edge 3£ maintenance fee

Nasqueron

crumpet_man said:

Nasqueron said:

crumpet_man said:

Nasqueron said:

crumpet_man said:

Nasqueron said:

seriously said:

flaneurs_lobster said:

seriously said:

I have an Edge current and Saver account but I've always had 2 x direct debits and transfer in at least £500 so I get charged the £3 fee. If I stop doing this, would they stop charging the fee? 

It wouldn't hurt to try right, as in I won't lose my Saver account and it's 6% interest?

Got a nasty feeling that if you stop the £500 (why, it only needs to be there for a moment) then they will stop cashback being earned on the DDs but still charge the fee.

Any chance you can make the cashback be more than the £3 fee (add council tax, utilities, internet+TV, mobile bills)?

Otherwise open another Edge CA with no DDs and no payments in, open an Edge Saver and transfer.

I have already have two Edge CAs and two Savers, one joint with my wife and one personal. All of our bills are in the joint account and we don't pay enough (fortunately) to cover back the fee, which is fine as the Saver is more than worth it for the interest anyways!

PRAISETHESUN said:

seriously said:

I have an Edge current and Saver account but I've always had 2 x direct debits and transfer in at least £500 so I get charged the £3 fee. If I stop doing this, would they stop charging the fee? 

It wouldn't hurt to try right, as in I won't lose my Saver account and it's 6% interest?

Once you qualify to be charged the monthly fee then Santander will continue to charge it, even if you stop meeting the cash back criteria in future. The only way that I'm aware of to stop the fee being charged is to downgrade to an Everyday account, or failing that, to close the account.

You could open a new Edge account and set it up to avoid being charged the monthly fee. If you never qualify for cashback (ie. never pay in £500+ and have 2x DDs pay out in a single month), then the monthly fee is never charged. Importantly, you still qualify for the Edge saver.

Thanks, I think I will wait until the Saver matures in April and then I downgrade the Edge CA and do as you say. Thank you very much! 

I have 2 personal edge accounts and 2x savers, a third one is also now possible I believe

Don't pay the fees on either

Don't think you can get three Edge current accounts.  You can have two and then have an Edge Explorer current account but don't think there is a way to avoid the monthly fee on that one.

That sounds about right thank you, I haven't looked at the Explorer so didn't know it had a fee, just saw it mentioned you could have the 3x savers. That said, with £4000 in the account, I earn £20 a month average so it might be worth it if the packaged account was useful, a net £3 gain and all the perks?

Where would that £4000 come from to deposit into the third Edge Saver?  Not under a mattress, it will be earning some interest.  For me, I would have to take it from regular savers earning over 6% so would be a loss.  If your £4000 is in a 4% account then you are only getting an extra 2% to offset the Edge Explorer fee.

Regular savers are never more profitable than savers that pay interest on the full balance from the start

First Direct 7%, max £300 a month but call it £333.33 for comparison = £150 interest
Santander 6% £4000 from day one = £240 interest

Where is 4% from?? The edge saver is 6% and you can close it and open a new one after the bonus ends

Regular savers are never more profitable than savers that pay interest on the full balance from the start

That's wrong isn't it?  It depends completely on the accounts you are comparing, the interest rates and the maximum monthly deposit.  A regular saving paying 10% with monthly deposit of £4k (I know this account does not exist) will pay more interest than £4k in a standard savings account earning 6%

Ignoring my made up 10% account, I have £4k in a range of regular savers which are all over 6%  and that will earn more interest than £4000 in a an Edge Saver at 6%.  For example, I have £4k in a 7% Monmouthshire regular saver. 

If you open a new Edge saver and want to deposit £4000, that money is currently in some other account, correct?  What is the interest rate you are currently earning on that account?  4% is just an example of an easy access savings account.  You move £4000 from the account earning 4% (or more, I don't know what accounts you have) to an Edge saver at 6% which means you are getting 2% more interest than you were.  The interest on the Edge saver account will pay for the £17 Explorer fee plus a couple of quid extra, but you should have been earning at least £13 a month interest anyway.  Your net gain is not £3 per month, you are paying about £10 per month for the Explorer account if the £4k was previously earning 4%.  

Obviously this is comparing like for like savings not extreme examples, I am surprised I have to spell that out

Ignoring my made up 10% account, I have £4k in a range of regular savers which are all over 6%  and that will earn more interest than £4000 in a an Edge Saver at 6%.  For example, I have £4k in a 7% Monmouthshire regular saver. 

This is a fundamental misunderstanding of how regular savers work, you do not earn 7% on the whole balance every month, you earn 7% on say £333.33, then 7% on £666.66 etc so you end up with generally half the interest. A 7% saver (like the example I gave above of FD) where you pay in £4000 / 12 months - £333.33 a month - pays £150 interest at the end. The same £4000 in the Edge Saver pays 6% on every £1 every day so you earn £240 at the end. Clearly £240 > £150 and the Edge Saver always beats the regular saver.

If Monmouthshire allows you to keep the money in and add to it, then it's like the NatWest digital saver but it is not a regular saver or some

If you open a new Edge saver and want to deposit £4000, that money is currently in some other account, correct?  What is the interest rate you are currently earning on that account?  4% is just an example of an easy access savings account.  You move £4000 from the account earning 4% (or more, I don't know what accounts you have) to an Edge saver at 6% which means you are getting 2% more interest than you were.

The money is recycled from 6% edge to the next 6% edge

The interest on the Edge saver account will pay for the £17 Explorer fee plus a couple of quid extra, but you should have been earning at least £13 a month interest anyway.  Your net gain is not £3 per month, you are paying about £10 per month for the Explorer account if the £4k was previously earning 4%.  

You are completely missing the whole point of a packaged account, you aren't paying £17 just for the fun of it, you pay it for all the perks, so you can have 2x Edge Current, 2x Edge Saver (paying 6% on £8000) and add an edge explorer account and the extra saver - you gain £20 a month in interest, and pay £17 a month so net £3 - if, and I was explicitly clear on this, it was useful to you - the annual travel insurance, breakdown, cashback on bills, 24/7 GP service, mobile phone cover plus the £0 fee overseas spending - THAT is what you are paying £17 for. Obviously you could not pay £17 and put the money elsewhere but then you have to pay for all those packages!!!

Nasqueron

PRAISETHESUN said:

Nasqueron said:

crumpet_man said:

Nasqueron said:

crumpet_man said:

Nasqueron said:

seriously said:

flaneurs_lobster said:

seriously said:

I have an Edge current and Saver account but I've always had 2 x direct debits and transfer in at least £500 so I get charged the £3 fee. If I stop doing this, would they stop charging the fee? 

It wouldn't hurt to try right, as in I won't lose my Saver account and it's 6% interest?

Got a nasty feeling that if you stop the £500 (why, it only needs to be there for a moment) then they will stop cashback being earned on the DDs but still charge the fee.

Any chance you can make the cashback be more than the £3 fee (add council tax, utilities, internet+TV, mobile bills)?

Otherwise open another Edge CA with no DDs and no payments in, open an Edge Saver and transfer.

I have already have two Edge CAs and two Savers, one joint with my wife and one personal. All of our bills are in the joint account and we don't pay enough (fortunately) to cover back the fee, which is fine as the Saver is more than worth it for the interest anyways!

PRAISETHESUN said:

seriously said:

I have an Edge current and Saver account but I've always had 2 x direct debits and transfer in at least £500 so I get charged the £3 fee. If I stop doing this, would they stop charging the fee? 

It wouldn't hurt to try right, as in I won't lose my Saver account and it's 6% interest?

Once you qualify to be charged the monthly fee then Santander will continue to charge it, even if you stop meeting the cash back criteria in future. The only way that I'm aware of to stop the fee being charged is to downgrade to an Everyday account, or failing that, to close the account.

You could open a new Edge account and set it up to avoid being charged the monthly fee. If you never qualify for cashback (ie. never pay in £500+ and have 2x DDs pay out in a single month), then the monthly fee is never charged. Importantly, you still qualify for the Edge saver.

Thanks, I think I will wait until the Saver matures in April and then I downgrade the Edge CA and do as you say. Thank you very much! 

I have 2 personal edge accounts and 2x savers, a third one is also now possible I believe

Don't pay the fees on either

Don't think you can get three Edge current accounts.  You can have two and then have an Edge Explorer current account but don't think there is a way to avoid the monthly fee on that one.

That sounds about right thank you, I haven't looked at the Explorer so didn't know it had a fee, just saw it mentioned you could have the 3x savers. That said, with £4000 in the account, I earn £20 a month average so it might be worth it if the packaged account was useful, a net £3 gain and all the perks?

Where would that £4000 come from to deposit into the third Edge Saver?  Not under a mattress, it will be earning some interest.  For me, I would have to take it from regular savers earning over 6% so would be a loss.  If your £4000 is in a 4% account then you are only getting an extra 2% to offset the Edge Explorer fee.

Regular savers are never more profitable than savers that pay interest on the full balance from the start

First Direct 7%, max £300 a month but call it £333.33 for comparison = £150 interest
Santander 6% £4000 from day one = £240 interest

Where is 4% from?? The edge saver is 6% and you can close it and open a new one after the bonus ends

The bit you're missing, and that @crumpet_man expands on in his post above, is that your savings doesn't exist in a vacuum. A higher rate is a higher rate and will always pay more than a lower rate.

If you have money sitting in your Edge saver earning 6%, and then over the course of the term of the RS account you drip feed it from your 6% savings account into a RS account earning more than 6%, then the overall interest earnt between both accounts will be more than if you had it sitting in only your 6% account. There's plenty of calculators online that will do the maths for you, but using your example of an Edge saver at 6% and FD RS at 7%, then you will earn approx. £234 leaving it in Edge saver for a year compared to £259 from the drip feed strategy (£135 from FD RS and £124 from the remaining portion in the Edge saver). If you're saving brand new money (eg. from income) then it makes even more sense to put it into the highest rate % account you have access to.

And that's also not counting any monthly fee you might be paying, which eats into your effective interest rate on the Edge saver.

You're missing the point entirely - £4k lump sum will always earn more money in Edge Saver paying 6% than in the regular saver. Yes absolutely you can balance it between the 2 and run down one and run up the other, but the regular saver like for like pays less and if you have the funds going into regular savers already then for the additional money it's logical it's better in 6% on every penny not drip feeding

Nasqueron

crumpet_man said:

friolento said:

crumpet_man said:

Nasqueron said:

crumpet_man said:

Nasqueron said:

seriously said:

flaneurs_lobster said:

seriously said:

I have an Edge current and Saver account but I've always had 2 x direct debits and transfer in at least £500 so I get charged the £3 fee. If I stop doing this, would they stop charging the fee? 

It wouldn't hurt to try right, as in I won't lose my Saver account and it's 6% interest?

Got a nasty feeling that if you stop the £500 (why, it only needs to be there for a moment) then they will stop cashback being earned on the DDs but still charge the fee.

Any chance you can make the cashback be more than the £3 fee (add council tax, utilities, internet+TV, mobile bills)?

Otherwise open another Edge CA with no DDs and no payments in, open an Edge Saver and transfer.

I have already have two Edge CAs and two Savers, one joint with my wife and one personal. All of our bills are in the joint account and we don't pay enough (fortunately) to cover back the fee, which is fine as the Saver is more than worth it for the interest anyways!

PRAISETHESUN said:

seriously said:

I have an Edge current and Saver account but I've always had 2 x direct debits and transfer in at least £500 so I get charged the £3 fee. If I stop doing this, would they stop charging the fee? 

It wouldn't hurt to try right, as in I won't lose my Saver account and it's 6% interest?

Once you qualify to be charged the monthly fee then Santander will continue to charge it, even if you stop meeting the cash back criteria in future. The only way that I'm aware of to stop the fee being charged is to downgrade to an Everyday account, or failing that, to close the account.

You could open a new Edge account and set it up to avoid being charged the monthly fee. If you never qualify for cashback (ie. never pay in £500+ and have 2x DDs pay out in a single month), then the monthly fee is never charged. Importantly, you still qualify for the Edge saver.

Thanks, I think I will wait until the Saver matures in April and then I downgrade the Edge CA and do as you say. Thank you very much! 

I have 2 personal edge accounts and 2x savers, a third one is also now possible I believe

Don't pay the fees on either

Don't think you can get three Edge current accounts.  You can have two and then have an Edge Explorer current account but don't think there is a way to avoid the monthly fee on that one.

That sounds about right thank you, I haven't looked at the Explorer so didn't know it had a fee, just saw it mentioned you could have the 3x savers. That said, with £4000 in the account, I earn £20 a month average so it might be worth it if the packaged account was useful, a net £3 gain and all the perks?

Where would that £4000 come from to deposit into the third Edge Saver?  Not under a mattress, it will be earning some interest.  For me, I would have to take it from regular savers earning over 6% so would be a loss.  If your £4000 is in a 4% account then you are only getting an extra 2% to offset the Edge Explorer fee.

Naturally, not everyone has £12k, or even £8k or £4k spare cash kicking about, to put into an Edge Saver. But those that have the readies could do worse than putting it into Edge Savers. 

You would  need a 7.5+% RS, dripfed with £333/mth from a 4% easy access account, to pay you the same or more than keeping £4k in an Edge Saver for a year. It would be hard / impossible to find such an RS right now. Plus there is currently the £25 TCB cashback for opening an Edge Saver. 

We've gone completely off track now.  The beginning of the side track was the question around a third Edge saver, which may be possible if you have an Edge Explorer current account with a £17 monthly fee.  I am not disputing the first two Edge savers which can be obtained with zero fee.

Nasqueron commented that the interest from the third Edge saver (approx £20 per month) would offset the £17 monthly fee for the Explorer account, with a couple of pounds extra to spare.  Thus getting a free packaged current account.

I disputed this as you would be sacrificing whatever interest you could be earning on that £4k if it was not in the third Edge saver, i.e. a 4% easy access savings account which would pay around £13 a month interest.  

Therefore, the interest from the third Edge saver does not offset the £17 Explorer fee, you would still be about £10 a month down when taking into account the interest no longer received from the donor account of the £4k deposit.

Only if you completely ignore the package benefits which is the whole point of paying the £17 fee

This is needlessly complicated because it's not comparing like for like, you cannot ignore the savings of the packaged account benefits from not paying for them, just to make the numbers look better. £120 down based on your numbers but the National/European coverage for example is at least £60 a year (based on the lower tier roadside and home assist cost). Mobile phone packages based on MSE site are around £40-£50 etc

crumpet_man

The money is recycled from 6% edge to the next 6% edge

That does not make sense.  You have two Edge savers now, which can be obtained with zero fee by having two Edge current accounts. 

To get the elusive third Edge saver you must open a new Explorer account with a £17 fee.  You deposit £4000 to the new third Edge Saver.  Where did that £4000 come from?  You are not going to take it from an account which pays the same interest and has no fee attached to it.  It must be in some other account already?  If it is in an account paying more than 6% then leave it where it is and use the interest from that to offset the fee for whichever packaged current account you like.

Only if you completely ignore the package benefits which is the whole point of paying the £17 fee

I am making no judgements on the packaged account benefits, only that it is not free.  It costs at least £10 per month depending on how much interest is currently being earned by the £4000 which will be deposited into the third Edge saver.