Choosing a Student Account

melancholly

Nitro89 wrote: »

I have applied to Natwest and I am getting my rail-card soon. I need to have another account with high interest for when I get a job during university, is Alliance of Leicester the best for this?

you only get the high interest if you deposit over a set amont every month (i think it's £500). so depending on how many hours work you do, that might not work. have a look over on the current accounts board as they will know more about the best non-student accounts.

Lokolo

melancholly wrote: »

you only get the high interest if you deposit over a set amont every month (i think it's £500). so depending on how many hours work you do, that might not work. have a look over on the current accounts board as they will know more about the best non-student accounts.

They don't have this anymore ^^

Well rumours around this site anyway, some people have been saying that you set the amount of regular income coming in, and as long as it stays with that, you're fine.

Also I cannot see anything on their site about the £500 anymore (whereas I used to be able to).

Nitro89

I want to make sure that I can't have more than one student account, is this true?

Also, I noticed that A&L don't give out paper statement unless its a fee of £5 per copy, so A&L is pretty much an on-line bank (I know it does have branches), I also hear how unsafe internet banking is, is there a way to manage your money through an A&L branch (such as machines that let you print of statements free)?

Also, can you take advantage of the freebies at A&L through their branch rather than online, or is it true to say its ONLY possible online?

sahun

Nitro89 wrote: »

I want to make sure that I can't have more than one student account, is this true?

That is what they say. but if you are careful you can have more...shhhhhh!

melancholly

Lokolo wrote: »

They don't have this anymore ^^

Well rumours around this site anyway, some people have been saying that you set the amount of regular income coming in, and as long as it stays with that, you're fine.

Also I cannot see anything on their site about the £500 anymore (whereas I used to be able to).

http://www.alliance-leicester.co.uk/current-accounts/premier-direct-current-account.aspx

looks like you have to be over 21 though - hadn't realised that, so it may not be much good for most current students anyway

http://www.alliance-leicester.co.uk/current-accounts/premier-21-account.aspx
this one looks like the better choice.



i'd also say that online banking is quite safe, as long as you have a sensible choice of password, don't ever log in on shared computers, change the password regularly and never reply to phishing emails..... it means you can check your account at any time - and therefore if you check regularly you'll be much more likely to notice any 'dodgy' transactions than only getting a statement once a month. i can use telephone banking for my A&L account (although i don't), so that might be an alternative?

Nitro89

is a printed statement just as good as an statement given by the bank?