Looking for a reward/cashback account - but don't want to switch

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pinkduvetdiva
pinkduvetdiva Posts: 405 Forumite
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My boyfriend and I are looking for a joint reward account for all our household bills. We'd be looking to deposit around £1500 per month, but want to keep our individual accounts for personal spending, so will be opening the joint account from scratch and not switching. Which bank accounts would you recommend or avoid? MTIA.

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  • Neil_Jones
    Neil_Jones Posts: 8,913 Forumite
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    Only really three to choose from:

    Santander 123 accounts (regular and lite) or the Natwest account are the ones that give cashback on select bills.

    Santander 123 requires minimum £500 a month pay in on both and two active direct debits, the regular pays 1.5% interest (but charges £5 a month so is effectively 1.2% interest), the lite pays no interest and charges £1 a month.

    Natwest is IIRC £1500 a month pay in, pays 2% on the same bills as Santander and charges £2 a month but IIRC the cashback doesn't work in the same way as Santander, and Santander doesn't run on a calendar month basis for your account either.

    Regards individual accounts, Nationwide is 5% on £2.5k for the first year and 1% afterwards. Other accounts give access to a regular saver that pays 5%. The 123 Lite account gives access to a 5% regular saver.

    All these you can apply for direct (and joint), no need to switch anything.
  • pinkduvetdiva
    pinkduvetdiva Posts: 405 Forumite
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    Neil_Jones wrote: »
    Only really three to choose from:

    Santander 123 accounts (regular and lite) or the Natwest account are the ones that give cashback on select bills.

    Santander 123 requires minimum £500 a month pay in on both and two active direct debits, the regular pays 1.5% interest (but charges £5 a month so is effectively 1.2% interest), the lite pays no interest and charges £1 a month.

    Natwest is IIRC £1500 a month pay in, pays 2% on the same bills as Santander and charges £2 a month but IIRC the cashback doesn't work in the same way as Santander, and Santander doesn't run on a calendar month basis for your account either.

    Regards individual accounts, Nationwide is 5% on £2.5k for the first year and 1% afterwards. Other accounts give access to a regular saver that pays 5%. The 123 Lite account gives access to a 5% regular saver.

    All these you can apply for direct (and joint), no need to switch anything.

    Thank you very much Neil - lots of food for thought there. :)
  • pinkduvetdiva
    pinkduvetdiva Posts: 405 Forumite
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    Just a quick update - we decided to go for the Santander 123 Lite.
  • Fingerbobs
    Fingerbobs Posts: 1,640 Forumite
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    Neil_Jones wrote: »
    the regular [Santander 123 account] pays 1.5% interest (but charges £5 a month so is effectively 1.2% interest)

    Only if you've got £20,000 in it. The lower the balance, the lower the "effective" interest rate.
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