1-2-3 Santander Account -

[MarillionFan]

Opened two of these current accounts yesterday. For anyone who's got a bit of cash in the bank & needs access to it, this account is worth it's weight in gold.


1% on water, council tax bills and Santander mortgage payments
2% on gas and electricity bills
3% on mobile phone, home phone, broadband and paid-for TV packages

In addition, it pays 3% interest on balances up to £20000.
You can open two accounts, so effectively 3% on £40000 with the cashback. Costs £2 per month per account.

Worth signing up for.

MF in 'IFA' Mode.

[kevpuk]

Did wonder about these accounts a while back, no particular reason to change, but seems the maffs is good, innit?!

[MarillionFan]

Did wonder about these accounts a while back, no particular reason to change, but seems the maffs is good, innit?!

You don't need to change. That's a misnomer.

You can open the account, all you have to do is transfer £500 in per month and put in two direct debits per account.

[d000hg]

Yep I have one of these. Didn't realise the threshold for the interest rate was so high, I thought it was more like £5k... if that's the case I should be using these to hold my dividends ASAP!

My parents had 4 accounts with another bank who did something similar, all paying £1000 a month in a big circle to meet the requirements.

[mudskipper]

Been tempted - my cash ISA's with Santander, and you can get an extra 1% if you have a 123 account.

[d000hg]

Been tempted - my cash ISA's with Santander, and you can get an extra 1% if you have a 123 account.

You do? we have ISAs with them too and never picked up on that one. We do get the 1-2-3 credit card for free as customers, which also gives decent cash-back on supermarket spends.

[TykeMerc]

Been tempted - my cash ISA's with Santander, and you can get an extra 1% if you have a 123 account.

That's quite a boost on the return of an ISA, sounds like a no brainer even if it's just used as a holding account to cycle some cash through to meet the requirements.

[SimonMac]

With the new 7 day switching rules, banks are now planning to insist that the donor account is closed as part of the transfer so might need to get in quick

[jmo21]

I've had my 123 account for 6 months maybe and only just discovered you can have 2.

Just applied for my 2nd one last night.

3% is the highest "normal" saving account at the moment, even though it is technically a current account.

(I have a Nationwide one that pays 6% but that's only on balances up to £2500 - every little helps right :-)

[DaveB]

With the new 7 day switching rules, banks are now planning to insist that the donor account is closed as part of the transfer so might need to get in quick

No need to switch, just open them as new accounts in addition to your exisiting ones.