Top Student Accounts 2008/09 Article Discussion

forgery

Signed up for my Halifax account today. Just wondering, as I earn less than 6k a year I don't pay tax, therefore is there any point in putting the money into an ISA? Will a regular savings account be better?

You won't need to use an ISA as you can use a regular instant access savings account and just email them to let them know you are student and shouldn't be taxed.

However in the long term, this won't last forever, and once money is in an ISA it can stay in an ISA forever, which will always give very good rates so I would use an ISA anyway but put the rest in savings, at maybe a higher rate, still tax free

I'd also just like to stay, starting my second year at Uni with Halifax. First year I got £1000, this year its been increased to £1,750. I don't use it as my main current account at all but not particularly happy about it.

Forg

daver14

I am currently starting my 3rd and final year at university. I do not have a student account at the moment and most that I have looked at state you must be on a course lasting 2 years or longer. Is therefore any way I can open a student account in my last year?

David

retardo

daver14 wrote: »

I am currently starting my 3rd and final year at university. I do not have a student account at the moment and most that I have looked at state you must be on a course lasting 2 years or longer. Is therefore any way I can open a student account in my last year?

David

Hi David,

I'm entering my 3rd year as well and have just (well, almost) opened a student account at HSBC. My card / pin are due to arrive one of these days, and when i asked about the overdraft i was told i'd be most likely to get the full 1500 available for 3rd years. Hope this answered your question, almost.

Toastie

I Opened up a Capital one Credit card in june in order to strengthen my credit record.
However next year i will hopefully be applying to uni and opening a student bank account.

The problem is could the capital one card affect my credit rating due to the sense of having available credit? Or would it help in that i pay always on time?

I had a limit increased from £100 to £400 recently so would that favour or go against?

It's all a bit confusing out there.

VADA12

daver14 wrote: »

I am currently starting my 3rd and final year at university. I do not have a student account at the moment and most that I have looked at state you must be on a course lasting 2 years or longer. Is therefore any way I can open a student account in my last year?

David

I am also in my 3rd year. I went to college for 2 years before going to Uni so my "Student" account had expired with the Bank Of Scotland. I applied for a "Student" account with Royal Bank of Scotland and they gave me an account no problem with a £1600.00 overdraft. The only thing is that you don't qualify for any offers like the £100 cash injection or free webcam as these are only available if you are in your 1st year - which I think is rubbish!!:mad:

papinade

I've read literally dozens of analyses about vatious student bank accounts - including the one on this very site - and not a single discussion explains whether interest-free overdrafts are available to students from abroad who are living and studying in the UK!!!

Can anybody help me with this???

My girlfriend is from Portugal, moved to the UK in February 2008 (having previously lived here for 12 months from 2006 to 2007) and started a three-year undergraduate degree in London in September 2008. I have popped into a couple of the big high-street banks to ask about student bank accounts and they are more than happy to tell me about the interest-free overdraft facilities available for students, until I tell them my girlfriend is from outside the UK.

At that point, they tell me interest-free overdrafts aren't available to students from abroad unless they've been living in the UK for THREE YEARS.

This seems insane!! The number of students coming to the UK from abroad is increasing all the time, and students from other countries are subject to exactly the same financial pressures as students from the UK. I am shocked that there is no legislation out there that enables students from within the EU to have the same rights to overdraft facilities as students from within the UK. And, it seems as least one of the big banks is missing a big trick - because if one of them were to offer interest-free overdrafts to foreign students, they would surely clean up the market!

Anyway - does anybody have any advice about this? And does anybody know if there is ANY bank out there, online or on the high street, offering interest-free overdraft facilities to foreign students studying in the UK??

Many thanks!!

iMacThere4iAm

I had no idea getting a student account would be so difficult!
I applied to Halifax, but was instantly rejected because of a glitch in their system.
I applied to NatWest, but the first time, they forgot about my application and when I phoned up to remind them, they started the process again from the beginning. On the second application, they wrote down my postcode wrong, which meant they kept refusing to accept my proof of address (without telling me why). I only found out the reason after the application had been expired due to lack of activity.

How does one deal with this incompetence? It's not like I'm asking them to do anything out of the ordinary - I just want a bank account!

Fire_Fox

papinade wrote: »

At that point, they tell me interest-free overdrafts aren't available to students from abroad unless they've been living in the UK for THREE YEARS.

This seems insane!! The number of students coming to the UK from abroad is increasing all the time, and students from other countries are subject to exactly the same financial pressures as students from the UK. I am shocked that there is no legislation out there that enables students from within the EU to have the same rights to overdraft facilities as students from within the UK. And, it seems as least one of the big banks is missing a big trick - because if one of them were to offer interest-free overdrafts to foreign students, they would surely clean up the market!

Many thanks!!

The reason they don't do lend to foreign students is the same reason some landlords do not like to let their properties to non-UK citizens: what is to stop them clearing the account and leaving no forwarding address? The bank is not there to provide a service, it is there to make money.

Fire_Fox

I joined the Co-op in my first year, having researched all the major banks. At the time, at least two different banks advised me that it was considered fraud to open two student current accounts due to money-laundering regulations.

I had problems with my branch (lost my paperwork twice etc.) so now always deal with the telephone banking people (VERY efficient). I have received the full overdraft both years, even tho only my grant was my only income initially. I was paid cash for the first 18 months, and intermittently fed my bank account, tho I am now paid directly into my student account.

Last year my overdraft was randomly cancelled, and I bounced several DDs. I telephoned the student team who were very helpful. They advised that my terms and conditions stated I must advise the bank I am still a student each year, or they will assume I have left education. As they had no record of writing to remind me, they refunded all the charges (about £120). This year I let the bank know I was still a student by telephone.

Last thing to say is that I also have an instant access savings account with Co-op which I use to keep my current account at least £1000 overdrawn. Neither the branch nor telephone banking staff have ever said anything when I have transferred money from one to the other.

fadedpages

Just a warning for anyone who has their student account with RBoS - over the summer, for some unknown reason, someone at their end changed my account to a normal current account rather than a student one. Nobody bothered to tell me this. I found out when I went into my overdraft last month and got charged interest. Their excuse was that they didn't have confirmation that I'd started my course, but I'm now in third year and I took them my uni card etc when I first opened the account. Load of nonsense.

It's been sorted now, and I got the interest back without any hassle once I managed to get the account changed back, but it was a pain I could have done without. Just wanted to give a heads up to anyone else who's using them to keep an eye out in case they try the same thing.