You’re known for your fast footwork here 
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Santander, mine 
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Yes indeed.
Just closed mine. Moving to Santander @5.2%
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Do you have the account already open?
I ask because the easy access account dropped to 2.5% last week.
The Santander one - yes.
For those who missed out on it, there are several banks currently now paying more then 5%.
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I’m sure everyone knows this, but if you have the Santander Edge current account you can also open an Edge Saver that pays 7% on the first £4k (no interest earned above £4K). So I’ve put four grand in that, with the remaining going in the 5.2% Easy Access (which you can’t get any longer).
The Edge current account does have a £3 per month fee, but that will be offset by earned cashback on direct debits.
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If you read the Key Facts document, you will note it says:
“We’ll start charging this fee after you meet the conditions for earning cashback for the first time”
As such, if you never met those conditions, you can get access to the 7% account for free (note that the 7% is only for the first 12 months).
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As a holder of the (much better, in most ways, but NLA) 123 Lite account, this is a very useful hack.
This is what I have done, and my first months interest, £23.04, appeared in the Edge Saver today, moved to the 5.20% Easy Access Saver Limited Edition 3
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Yep, I’m aware you may be able to get things for free. But the Ts and Cs do include wordings that suggest if Santader doesn’t think the account is for you (you’re not paying the fee, or the cashback on your utility direct debits doesn’t come close to covering the fee), they’ll move you to another account.
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That’s not what the terms say.
We can convert your Santander Edge current account to one that doesn’t charge a monthly fee if
we think it’s no longer the right account for you. For example, if we notice that the monthly fee may
be more than the benefits you receive from your account and any related accounts. We’ll tell you
before we do this to let you know what your options are.
If no monthly fee is paid, it cannot be higher than the benefits received.
Of course any bank has the right to stop offering a particular accounts to a customer if it sees fit, or any service at all - but I can’t see any indication anywhere that Santander have done so in the past, and they’ve been offering similar ‘fee + cashback’ accounts for over a decade now.
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So for those of us who sadly missed the Santander 5.2%, I’m thinking the best alternative currently available, which allows unlimited withdrawals and no minimum balance, and no extra hoops such as requiring a specific current account, is tandem with the top up (to 5%).
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I’m not sure you can get the top up - unless you already claimed it?
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Yes, definitely a case of leaving Tandem accounts open when emptying.
I opened an account last night and was able to get the top-up.
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Good result - I thought they’d discontinued it.
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They brought it back this week, I believe.
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Ah - mystery solved
Gatehouse Bank the latest of my little used accounts to hit 5%