Santander Edge review: 1% cashback current account

Is this current account from Santander any good?

The Santander Edge current account offers cashback on bills and interest on savings, though there’s a monthly fee. Here’s how it works, and how it compares to other accounts such as the Santander 123 account it replaced.

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What is the Santander Edge account?

This current account from Santander is open to new and existing customers.

You can earn 1% back on direct debits on your bills. However, this is limited to certain categories. There’s also a £10 limit per month, so £120 a year.

As of 20 May 2025 new customer can no longer also earn 1% cashback on some debit card spending, while existing customers will see this benefit end on 9 September 2025.

The savings rate on the linked savings account pays 6%. However, that’s just for a year. After 12 months it drops to 4%. It’s also only paid on balances up to £4,000.

This account isn’t free — it costs £3 a month, or £36 a year. This is £1 more than the Santander 123 Lite was, but £2 less than the Santander Edge Up account.

Santander Edge fee

You’ll pay £3 a month to access the Santander Edge account. Unlike with reward accounts at other banks, there’s no way to avoid the fee if you want to get cashback on your bills, so you need to take it into account when working out how much you’ll make from the cashback and savings interest.

However if you just want to access the savings account, there is an unofficial hack that could help you avoid the fee. You’ll only be able to do this if you never set up any direct debits on the account.

Since you can have both a joint and personal Edge account (and more Edge Savers as a result), this could be a handy way to have the extra account fee-free. Just make sure all your bills are paid from only one of these to maximise the cashback.

Watch out too for any Santander bank switch offer as this will usually require you to have active direct debits on the account, and therefore triggering the monthly fee.

Santander Edge and cashback on bills

You’ll earn 1% on selected household bills. These are the same broad categories covered by the Santander 123 accounts, though they are lower rates on gas, electricity and water. There’s no bonus cashback on Santander products like mortgages, which is only available to holders of the now closed Santander 123 account.

• Council Tax bills (including Rates in Northern Ireland) 
• Gas and electricity bills 
• Water bills 
• Mobile and home phone bills
• Broadband bills
• Paid-for TV packages 

It’s worth checking to see if your broadband and mobile supplier is included as there may be some that aren’t.

How much cashback will you make?

With the bills, you’ll need to spend £1,000 a month in order to hit the £10 cap, and I think that’s incredibly unlikely. Even with recent hikes to water, energy bills and Council Tax, the average house in will be spending around £350 a month. That’ll result in £3.50 cashback a month. Of course, many will pay more than the average household, so you could expect that to increase if so. For example, if I had this account (rather than my older 123 Lite account), I’d earn £5.20 a month.

After these bills, the vast majority of households would need a massive pay TV bill and expensive mobile phone contract to get even close to a grand of cashback each month.

It’s certainly possible people are paying more than £100 on the likes of Sky TV or £30 to £40 on mobile deals. But if you’re savvy with those bills (by axing pay TV and going SIM-only on your phone), they’d amount to less than a tenner combined.

Put broadband at £30 (you can get it for less) and an average bill payer is maybe nudging £400 to £500 combined. So I’d expect average households who have shopped around to get £4 at most, or £48 a year.

Though of course, you should factor in the monthly fee against the total amount you make from this account. Do this and it means your profit could be as low as £50p a month, or £6 a year, or perhaps as high as £5 a month and £60 a year,

If you’re at the lower end it doesn’t sound too enticing does it? But don’t forget you also get to earn interest – more on this in a moment.

How does it compare to other ways to get cashback on bills?

If you already have a Santander 123 Lite account, or even the standard 123 (both are closed to new customers) then I’d 100% stick with that. You’ll get higher rates on water (3%), gas (2%) and electricity (2%) bills.

If you don’t have that one, then your other main option is the Edge Up account, that has a slightly higher cap on cashback of £15 a month – though you’ll pay £5 a month.

For that extra £2 a month you’d need to have incredibly high bills to gain the extra cashback each month. Unless that’s possible, the Edge has the edge.

You could look at using a cashback card instead, the American Express’s Nectar card offers 1% back (but as Nectar points). However, you might find Council Tax excluded (it depends where you live), while you’d lose out on a direct debit discount from energy bills.

Santander Edge and interest on savings

If you have the Edge current account you’ll be able to open up a Santander Edge saver. This 6% rate contains a 2% bonus for 12 months, so it’ll drop to 4% after a year (though as the rate is variable it could go up or down in this time).

The interest is also only on balances of up to £4,000. Anything in the account above this will earn nothing at all.

As this table shows, those who don’t cover the monthly fee via cashback elsewhere in the account will want to have at least £600 saved to avoid making a loss.

Amount saved	Annual Interest	Interest after £36 fee	Effective interest rate if paying fee
£600.00	£36.00	-£6.00	0.0%
£1,000.00	£60.00	£24.00	2.40%
£1,500.00	£90.00	£54.00	3.60%
£2,000.00	£120.00	£86.00	4.3%
£2,500.00	£150.00	£114.00	4.56%
£3,000.00	£180.00	£144.00	4.80%
£3,500.00	£210.00	£174.00	5%
£4,000.00	£240.00	£204.00	5.10%

Though it’s only one Saver per person per current account, you can get two with a joint Edge current account, which would mean you can save up to £8,000 at this rate.

You could even have a joint account and a personal account each, giving you four Edge savers in total. I’ve written more about this hack in my separate review of the Edge Saver.

Overall it’s an excellent rate, and certainly something that makes it worth considering multiple, let alone one, Edge current accounts.

Santander Edge Up and spending abroad

One feature for the Edge is that spending and cash withdrawals are fee-free abroad. Of course this isn’t the only card that does this, and there are plenty of free options. However, this is a good option for countries with a Santander ATM as you’ll also avoid machine charges if using one.

Santander Edge and debit card cashback

Existing customers can earn 1% from using your debit card – but only only until 9 September 2025. The money is only paid on transport and grocery spending. Here are the qualifying subcategories:

Transport

• Service stations and UK petrol stations 
• Automated fuel dispensers 
• Suburban and local commuter passenger transport including ferries 
• Passenger rail journeys 
• Bus journeys 
• Electric vehicle charging points 

Groceries

• Supermarkets and grocery stores 
• Convenience stores 
• Food markets 
• Specialty food stores 
• Vending machines 

How much cashback will you make?

To get the £10 a month on debit card spending, you’d need to spend £1,000 a month in those categories. Supermarket spending on its own won’t hit this mark for most households, though filling up a car each month will improve your return.

It’s obviously going to be easier to max out this category for those who commute – though if you buy an annual season ticket you’ll miss out.

I’d say expect a spend of £500 a month, so £5 cashback, and anything more is a bonus.

How does it compare to other cashback cards?

When it comes to supermarkets and most travel expenditures it’s not a bad option if you already have the account. Changes to the Chase cashback offering mean there’s not really much to choose between the two options.

But for everything else (or instead) you can use the highest paying Amex Nectar – as long as you’re happy to receive the money back as Nectar points. There’s a £30 annual fee with this card from year two onwards, but other Amex offers should more than cover this.

Santander Edge vs Santander 123 Lite account?

With the launch of the Edge account, you’re no longer able to open a 123 Lite account. This is a real shame as that offered higher cashback rates on bills. However existing 123 Lite customers can keep their account, and I’d suggest they do rather than switch to the Edge account.

Santander Edge vs Santander Edge Up

The Edge Up is a souped up version of the Edge. It costs £2 more each month, and in return you can earn up to £15 cashback a month and earn interest on balances of up to £25,000, albeit at a lower rate.

I’d ignore the savings on the Edge Up account as that rate can easily be beaten in a number of places, so thanks to the increased savings on the Edge, it’s really not worth choosing the Edge Up over the Edge

Is the Santander Edge any good?

Santander Edge Up offers