Santander 123 Lite - conversion to Everyday Account from 21 August 2025?

GeoffTF

Sea_Shell said:

Is the Edge saver continuing?    With the introductory rate of 6%?

That is the big question. I recently learned here that it is possible to close the saver when the bonus runs out and open a new one to get a new bonus. If I do that I will come out ahead with the Edge and £4K in the saver, but I do not know how long that will last. I expect that Santander is cutting current account perks to pay for bonuses to people transferring in. I do not want to have savings with the same bank as my current account, but I can live with that.

Sea_Shell

I think I'm going to wait until I get Official notification of the changes, then make a decision at the time.

Anything could happen before then.

Stargunner

brewerdave said:

friolento said:

The end of an era.

It was a lovely account.

Can't decide yet what I will do.

Oh for the days of the original 123 account(s), stuffed with up to £20k !
I will lose ~ £80 per year staying with Edge so I'll be moving my services elsewhere - just need to research.
IF I was a synic, I'd say that they are prepared for an outflow ready to sell the remaining customers onwards !!

Can you please advise how you would be as much as £80 a year worse off with an efge acc.

Section62

Olenna said:

Section62 said:

Sea_Shell said:

We were considering a move away from Santander, this might just be the deciding factor.

I'd been thinking about moving my direct debits away - I'm now only just covering the fee with cashback, and with useful SMS alerts being stopped soon the risk of a DD failing due to low balance will increase going forward. As the charge for one failed DD could wipe out more than a year's net profit on the cashback the 123 (/Lite) account doesn't look anything like as worthwhile as it did in the old days.

I thought Santander no longer charge for failed Direct Debits (on their paid accounts anyway) as that's why I helped a friend upgrade to 123 Lite as they used to bounce Direct Debits left, right and centre. 

Just checked and they now waive the failed Direct Debit fee on the free Everyday account too so they should be good to go.

Charges by the utility/service provider.   E.g. Scottish Power's £5 "administrative fee" if they can't collect the DD on resubmission.

For me the risk just isn't worth it given the limited upside.

where_are_we

GeoffTF said:

Sea_Shell said:

Is the Edge saver continuing?    With the introductory rate of 6%?

That is the big question. I recently learned here that it is possible to close the saver when the bonus runs out and open a new one to get a new bonus. If I do that I will come out ahead with the Edge and £4K in the saver, but I do not know how long that will last. I expect that Santander is cutting current account perks to pay for bonuses to people transferring in. I do not want to have savings with the same bank as my current account, but I can live with that.

Please explain your rationale behind not having savings with the same bank as your current account.

Alongside our 123 lite my Oh and myself have 4 Edge Savers (easy access accounts) with £16K still earning almost 7% (will be 6% soon).

friolento

where_are_we said:

GeoffTF said:

Sea_Shell said:

Is the Edge saver continuing?    With the introductory rate of 6%?

That is the big question. I recently learned here that it is possible to close the saver when the bonus runs out and open a new one to get a new bonus. If I do that I will come out ahead with the Edge and £4K in the saver, but I do not know how long that will last. I expect that Santander is cutting current account perks to pay for bonuses to people transferring in. I do not want to have savings with the same bank as my current account, but I can live with that.

Please explain your rationale behind not having savings with the same bank as your current account.

Alongside our 123 lite my Oh and myself have 4 Edge Savers (easy access accounts) with £16K still earning almost 7% (will be 6% soon).

Where would you keep your savings >£16k?

GeoffTF

where_are_we said:

GeoffTF said:

Sea_Shell said:

Is the Edge saver continuing?    With the introductory rate of 6%?

That is the big question. I recently learned here that it is possible to close the saver when the bonus runs out and open a new one to get a new bonus. If I do that I will come out ahead with the Edge and £4K in the saver, but I do not know how long that will last. I expect that Santander is cutting current account perks to pay for bonuses to people transferring in. I do not want to have savings with the same bank as my current account, but I can live with that.

Please explain your rationale behind not having savings with the same bank as your current account.

If the bank has an outage or blocks my account, I do not want to lose access to my savings too. I currently have my short term savings with the Skipton BS, which allows two nominated bank accounts. If the Skipton went down, I could raise money by selling investments, if needs be. Having some some money with Santander beyond what I need to pay the month's Direct Debits, would add some resilience. The downside is extra complexity. Cash deposits are not tax efficient for me, so I try to keep them as low as I reasonably can.

artyboy

I've made a LOT of money out of Santander over the past 20 years, through one account or another. This could finally be the end of an era... 

Birdman2015

My best plan will be to pay my Council Tax and energy bills with the Edge credit card to max out the cashback on that now that my introductory period has ended.

Olenna

Sea_Shell said:

I think I'm going to wait until I get Official notification of the changes, then make a decision at the time.

Anything could happen before then.

It's already on their website; waiting until you get a letter or PDF addressed to you won't change anything.
Changes to your current account | Santander UK

Santander don't consider the UK market profitable enough, so it's logical they ditch loss leading accounts.