MSE News: Santander adds 18 months 0% spending to best-buy cashback credit card

Caught me at a good time. The 5% interest on up to £2,500 FlexDirect account from Nationwide has just stopped paying 5%, after the first year. Before that, I was unwilling to close the FlexDirect. Now it can die for a good cause, since Santander insists on switching, not just opening, a 123 current account.

Might as well grab the 123 credit card.

Asda, Morrisons and Sainsbury's all appear in both the 1% supermarket cashback list, and the 3% petrol cashback list. How does it know? Ideally, I want to get 3% cashback by buying my milk, newspaper and cigarettes from the petrol kiosk, as well as petrol.

YorkshireBoy wrote: »

That doesn't appear to be the case, according to their website?


But why close Nationwide? Switch an account held elsewhere to it for a £50 incentive* (just need 2 DDs on the donor account).



* Via the refer a friend scheme.

I went through a Quidco cashback link, for £35, and there was a message saying that I must tick the switching option, as well as another option I can't remember right now. The £35 is now tracking, so far so good.

Refer a friend? Presumably I need to know someone who has a Santander account?

The Nationwide FlexDirect isn't my main current account. It does have a few DDs though. The 5% interest on £2,500 only lasted a year, so I was wondering what to do. In order to maximise the 5% interest, I had to keep around £3,500 in the account, so it doesn't dip below £2,500.

With the Santander 123, I can get £15k worth of 0% Balance Transfer, at 2% Fee or less, but get 3% interest. I have to pay tax on the 3%, so it roughly pays for the Fee. So, instead of circa £4,000 of my cash sitting in a FlexDirect account paying no interest, I will have £15k + £4k = £19k (below the £20k threshold) in the 123 account, where my £4,000 is generating 3%, with the other £15k cost neutral.