From today, every new and existing Santander and Abbey for Intermediaries mortgage customer who already has or opens a new Santander 123 Current Account will earn 1% cashback on their mortgage payments when they pay by direct debit, up to £1,000 a month.

Santander claims this could help them to reduce their annual mortgage bill by £120.

This is on top of the cashback the 123 Current Account already pays to customers who pay their household bills, council tax and communications bills by direct debit.

The 123 account also already pays cashback on gas, electricity, water, council tax and communications direct debits set up on a customer’s account, for a monthly fee of £2.

New and existing customers can open the account online, in branch or by phone.

Also, the 123 Current Account pays in-credit interest on a customer’s total balance of up to 3% once they have more than £1,000 in their account, up to a maximum balance of £20,000.

“This latest enhancement to our popular 123 Current Account makes our mortgage range even more competitive for intermediaries because their clients will now receive the additional benefit of 1% cashback up to maximum monthly mortgage payments of £1000, when they pay their Santander mortgage by direct debit from a Santander 123 Current Account,” said Miguel Sard (pictured), managing director of Abbey for Intermediaries.

“In today’s challenging economic conditions, the feedback from our intermediary partners is that now more than ever, their clients are looking for ways to save money and turning to them for a more holistic service. Since we launched the 123 Current Account in March this year, we’ve continually engaged with customers to find out what they would like from the account and the overwhelming response was that they’d like cashback on their Santander mortgage payments.

“We’re committed to becoming the intermediary partner of choice and this enhancement will allow us to work with intermediaries to add even more value to borrowers taking out a mortgage with Abbey for Intermediaries.”

From today, Santander 123 Credit Card customers will also be able to earn 3% cashback on their National Rail travel and Transport for London spend including tube, train and bus travel.

This is in addition to the existing cashback categories, 1% for supermarket spend, 2% for department store spend and 3% for petrol station spend.