December cashback, payments finished
December cashback
PagoPA announced that the payment phase relating to the Christmas Cashback, credited on the basis of the transactions recorded in December, has officially ended. “In full compliance with the deadlines set by the regulations”, explains the group, “with the payment orders arranged on 24/02/2021, the liquidation phase of the Cashback refunds for the period 8-31 December 2020 was completed“. The last ones are expected to be accounted for within the day today and the credits will take place in compliance with the banking times provided for in the individual cases.PagoPA: cashback payments completed
Based on what has been announced , the transfers ordered by Consap would have been 3.2 million (out of a total of 4.6 million users enrolled in the program), for a total liquidated equal to 223 million (63 million transactions processed for an average of about 70 euros cashback to all those who at the time exceeded the minimum 10 transactions foreseen in the experimental period).PagoPA adds that only a small part of the transfers have not been successful, something as 0.04% of the total: it is about 130 thousand citizens, for whom the problem can still be solved:
Only 0.04% of the transfers were not successful due to problems related to the insertion of incorrect IBANs or blocked or no longer existing current accounts. In any case, program participants who fall into these cases do not lose the right to receive a refund and will be able to enter a valid IBAN through the appropriate functionality on the IO app.
Those who have not yet received the payment can therefore proceed with the necessary checks, but it is advisable to wait a few more days since in some cases it is the banking procedures that extend the time between the payment of the bank transfer and the credit of the amount on the single current account. If by next week the bank transfer is not paid, however, it will be possible to proceed with the search for the causes of the non-payment.
In the meantime, the first half-yearly phase of the Cashless Italia Plan is underway, which will end with the month of June and which is already counting 7.7 million subscribers (therefore a figure doubled compared to the experimental period), 250 million transactions processed and a growing competition among the 100,000 who aspire to the 1500 euro Super Cashback.
Source: PagoPA
Pay £3 a month for £5 cashback: TSB unveils its new 'premium' current account which pays customers LESS than its free version
TSB has launched a new cashback-paying current account with a monthly fee which wipes out 60 per cent of what its holders can earn.
Its 'Spend & Save Plus' account pays holders £5 cashback a month if they make 30 debit card payments and comes with a £100 interest-free overdraft and no fees when using the card or withdrawing cash abroad.
But it comes with a £3 monthly fee, cutting the maximum cashback which can be earned to just £24 a year.
Despite billing it as a 'premium' style account, aside from the limited cashback, overdraft buffer and no overseas fees, it comes with no other features which aren't already available through its free account.
The monthly fee on TSB's new 'Spend & Save Plus' account cuts the cashback earned by customers by 60%
Customers can even earn more cashback with the no-fee 'Spend & Save' account, which pays the same £5 monthly figure, although only for the first six months.
Because of the lack of a fee, customers would earn £30 if they made 30 debit card purchases each month for six months, more than the £24 they would earn in a year from its 'Premium' account after the £3 monthly fee was taken into account.
With the cashback offer a permanent fixture of the paid-for version, customers would get the same £30 back if they meet the criteria after 15 months
The cashback replaced in-credit interest paid on balances of up to £1,500, which TSB stopped paying last December when it scrapped its 'Classic Plus' account.
The new Spend & Save account lets customers set up savings pots which pay 0.01 per cent interest on up to £5,000 after a year and round up spare change, features already previously introduced by smartphone banks like Monzo.
Borrowing beyond the £100 interest-free buffer is charged at 39.9 per cent APR, the same rate charged by other high street banks like HSBC, Lloyds and Nationwide Building Society.
The requirement to make 30 debit card transactions, or roughly one a day per month, to qualify for the cashback could also see customers spend unnecessarily to reach the goal.
Andrew Hagger, founder of the personal finance site Moneycomms, said: 'I don't think the new TSB deal is overly attractive. Yes you can earn £5 cashback and get the first £100 of any overdraft interest free, but there is a monthly fee of £3 with this account so the net reward is minimal.
'The ability to put funds in separate savings pots is a useful budgeting feature and will help some people manage their money better but the interest rate on these pots is a mere 0.05 per cent for the first year.
'If it's the interest free overdraft element that appeals, I'd suggest taking a look at First Direct or M&S Bank where the first £250 is interest free and there's no monthly fee to pay.'
TSB was ranked the third-worst bank in Britain in the latest current account rankings from the Competition and Markets Authority.
Just 53 per cent of customers would recommend it to their friends and family, according to the rankings published this month, putting it ahead of only Royal Bank of Scotland and Tesco Bank.
Latest figures from the Current Account Switching Service show it lost a net 5,005 customers between July and September last year of those using the seven-day service.
Only HSBC, Santander and NatWest performed worse.
Current account perks have increasingly disappeared in recent years, and the last 12 months in particular.
Last month Santander announced the third cut to the interest paid to customers of its flagship 123 Account since January 2020.
Customers will earn just 0.3 per cent on up to £20,000 from April, down from 1.5 per cent this time last year.
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