Santander Announces Major Perk Will Be Cut - Will It Impact You?
- Santander ditches key cashback rewards on Edge and Edge Up accounts
- Comes as cost of living crisis continues to batter households
- Better deals still available – here’s where to look
Santander has dropped a financial bombshell on millions of loyal customers, axing a major cashback perk from its popular Edge and Edge Up current accounts—and the timing couldn’t be worse.
From September 9, shoppers will no longer earn 1% cashback on supermarket, fuel, or travel spending, meaning a once-easy way to claw back cash on daily essentials is about to vanish.
Currently, Santander Edge users get 1% cashback on household bills and everyday debit card spending, such as groceries and fuel, for a £3 monthly fee. Edge Up, a premium version costing £5, offers the same perks with a higher cashback cap.
But soon, only cashback on household bills—like council tax and utilities—will remain.
A Santander spokesperson confirmed: “We regularly review our products... and have made the decision to remove cashback on supermarket and travel debit card spend.”
The move, blamed on rising costs, comes hot on the heels of Santander scrapping several text alerts earlier this month—raising concerns that customers are losing more than they’re gaining.
Tom Church, Co-Founder of LatestDeals.co.uk the discount code platform, said,
"This is a blow for families who relied on the cashback to ease rising food and fuel bills. But switching to other banks or cards with stronger cashback offers could make up for the loss."
I've often looked a their financial products and their services always look a bit rubbish to me and there was talk recently of them pulling out of the UK because either the UK is unprofitable or barely profitable to them. I was with Alliance and Leicester when they took them over and can't remember the details but I think within a year I'd moved as they had removed the benefits to the account I was using.
I would definitely look to other financial services providers as I've honestly never seen any product or service worth having at Santander. Maybe they are better for businesses but their consumer grade products seem rubbish. I seem to remember they had a reward credit card but it had a large monthly fee that for me would cost far more than the benefits would generate. I guess it would only benefit the very rich who do a lot more spending than me.
I assume that retrospectively Santander will also be scrapping the monthly fee of £3/£5?
Maybe they have had to write off a lot of unpaid debt from consumers or businesses and now they are looking to restore their profit margin. Maybe they have had to offer deals to people who have mortgages with them who are struggling to pay. It feels like it will be something like that. The recent car loan scandal is going to cost many banking groups 10s of millions or more so many financial groups are looking to recover those costs.