Has Santander signalled the end of current accounts with benefits?

This is Money Podcast

This is Money

Business News, Business, Investing, News

4.1 • 650 Ratings

🗓️ 17 January 2020

⏱️ 56 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Santander is to cut the rate of interest customers can earn with its 123 current account.

It will mean one of Britain's most popular accounts will have dropped from a top tier 3 per cent when it launched in 2012 to 1 per cent.

Why has the high street banking giant done this and could it result in an exodus of people moving? Does it signal the end of current accounts with benefits?

It is also capping the level of cashback customers can earn while putting a blanket 39.9 per cent overdraft rate in place – following a similar move from its banking rivals.

Simon Lambert, Lee Boyce and Georgie Frost take a look at what it means for the current account market, whether there are other – better – accounts to switch to and how it managed to become so popular.

Also on this week's podcast, we look at the rise of the buy now, pay later form of credit and whether it is another debt trap to watch out for.

Why have nearly 40,000 people put in retrospective planning applications? And can you really hide a castle behind a haystack…

Lastly, the love affair with car buyers and SUVs shows no signs of abating – sales continue to grow at a faster rate than any other group.

We list the five reasons, allegedly, not to snap one up and whether you should consider an alternative.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	This Is Money's podcast is brought to you in partnership with the financial services compensation scheme.
0:04.9	Check your financial products at FSCS protected at fscs.org.uk forward slash this is money.
0:11.3	Welcome to This Is Money. I'm Georgie Frost and alongside me and editor Simon Lambert today.
0:16.1	For his first of the new year, happy new year is Assistant Editor Lee Boyce. And, well, it was on the card.
0:23.0	Santander follows the crowd and slashes the perks on its super popular one, two, three account.
0:28.8	But is this the death knell for bank accounts with benefits? We also look at the rise of buy now, pay later industry.
0:35.6	We ask if you can get planning permission after you've built
0:39.1	something you weren't supposed to and give you five good reasons not to buy an SUV. And don't
0:45.2	forget, you step up to date with all the latest breaking money news, just go to this ismoney.com.com
0:49.1	UK or download the app. But first, let's think back, shall we, to the heady days of 2012,
0:57.5	when someone called Got Your Feet, Kimbra, was number one in the music charts.
1:03.3	No, me neither.
1:04.3	And Santander stormed to the top of the current account charts,
1:07.1	with its brand new one, two, three account.
1:09.5	Now, it quickly became a big hit with customers
1:11.8	with its offering of decent interest rates on large balances and up to 3% cashback on
1:18.0	your household bills. Now fast forward a few years to November 2016 the rate was halved. Customers
1:23.8	were pretty angry about it. But fast forward again to the start of this week, and we got the news, and not only is Santander's slashing interest in cashback,
1:32.6	but it's bringing in an overdraft rate of 39.9%. Now, the changes will come in in May, and it's not just the one, two, three, that is getting a bit of a shake-up.
1:43.5	Why have they done it?
1:44.9	And does this signal the end of accounts with benefits?
1:47.4	Now, I want to ask you first about these accounts and Santander, why it's doing it, etc.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from This is Money, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of This is Money and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.