Santander Cutting Interest Rates & Rewards again

[paradigm]

Thanks for the confirmation regarding the (non)renewal of the Marcus savings account bonus rate.

I have two Santander 123 Accounts and it is a great pity (and inconvenience) that things are going to change. I plan to move to a single 'Lite' account, as an interim measure, pending a better bank current account from an alternative provider becoming available. Unfortunately there does not seem to be anything else particularly attractive at the moment.

[GeoffF100]

Moving my account to another bank would be a lot of work, because it is the nominated account for a lot of other accounts. Nonetheless, if I can move to a Santander 123 Light account, whilst keeping the same sort code and account number, that should save me money. I can cope without paper statements. I expect that their days are numbered anyway.

[paradigm]

Yes, I am in exactly the same position with a large number of linked accounts, etc. I intend to ask Santander if the account number and sort code will remain the same if a 123 Account is converted to a Lite account? If this will not be the case, I anticipate great difficulty in identifying all the changes required.

Regarding the earlier issue of withdrawing large sums, (greater than ~£20k) I recall that the telephone service still has a dailly limit of around £200k if I remember correctly.

paradigm

[GeoffF100]

When I upgraded from an ordinary Santander current account (that I have held since the Building Society days) to the 123, I kept the same sort code and account number. It ought to be the same for a "downgrade" too. It is essential to check first, of course. I believe the change to the interest rate and cashback happens at the beginning of May. I am fine where I am until then.

A Faster Payments limit around £200K would not be an issue for me. My transfers are usually be less than £85K. I did £150K by CHAPS a few years ago, but that was exceptional.

[steelman99]

Re Downgrading from 123 to 123 lite - can confirm that I kept the same account No & Sort code - title just changed overnight , and interest rate showed as 0.00% - everything else stopped the same , other than fee only been £1 now

[GeoffF100]

Thanks for that steelman99. The only issue that remains for me is to identify the most convenient time for me to switch over to the Lite account.

[DrBunsenHoneydew]

Thanks for that steelman99. The only issue that remains for me is to identify the most convenient time for me to switch over to the Lite account.

I too can confirm that the same account number is retained on switching to 123 Lite.
No need to phone up either. There is an "Upgrade Current Account" link to the right of the main screen of your listed accounts. Yes, it's actually a downgrade but the link works!

[UncleEbenezer]

Certainly wont bother me , and I'm down to the lite account already , so the interest rate wont affect me

I often have to split large transactions. Money can hang about in my account for a few days if I have to bale the money out a bucket at a time. Getting 1% on the first £20K is better than nothing.

I looked into this in the context of buying a house. Paying a 10% deposit from my 123 account was fine; paying the 90% balance was harder. In the time between taking my pension lump sum (which covered the majority of the purchase) and completing on the house I learned quite a lot about big cash transfers. In fact the account that worked best for large payments was my Yorkshire BS savings account, but that's sadly now down to 0.5% interest, so I can't recommend it to people who don't already have one.

Closed the 123 account a few weeks later. Without a £20k cash float it ceased to look worthwhile.

[paradigm]

I have now received responses to some secure messages sent to Santander:

They have (also) confirmed that the account number and sort code will remain the same after moving down to the 123 'Lite' account.

Also the existing Regular eSaver accounts (and their rates) will be unaffected for 123 customers - they will continue to operate as at present.

paradigm

[GeoffF100]

I got my last three monthly paper statement to file and have made the switch to 123 Lite. No problems. The only things that have changed are that I pay £1 instead of £5 each month and receive no interest. Same account number. Same debit card. It now says 123 Lite when I log in. It still says Select though.

[steelman99]

Now looks like Santander are cutting even further to 0.6% per year on their 123 account , so unlesss your running a balance of over £8k , you would be better off with the 123 lite account

even if you were running a balance of over £8k, then moving most of your money to a diffrent account and downgrding to a 123 lite account would proberbly give more return on your money

can still get just over 1% elsewhere for instant access if you look