Changing Student Accounts

tinkerbel

Heya
I currently have a Natwest student account and have maxed out the £1250 OD in order to sort of stooze it, or offset it against the interest my student loans are racking up. This has been working well, I get my railcards and I have my loan from student finance paid directly into it.
Now I have seen that halifax have a £3000 0% OD avaliable and I am tempted as it would practically double my stoozepot.
I asked in the Halifax and they said that I would have to close my Natwest a/c first, then apply for their account, they would do a credit check and I might not pass hence I would be in a worse position then when I started.
I can afford to pay back the natwest OD asap, I just have to move some money around first but I would like some help as to
- why would I fail the credit check - but I have just applied for 2 different current accounts (A+L and the Co-op)

- could I have natwest open and apply for the Halifax at the same time, then close natwest once the halifax is succesfully open (and therefore switch my student finance payments really easily from natwest to halifax)

- if I could do this, would I have to lie and say that I didnt have the natwest one open?

Sorry for all of the questions, and I know I might look a bit greedy but I'm not really, I'm just wanting to follow all of the tips and tricks from MSE and try to beat the system a bit so that I am less crippled by the interest on my stuent loans!
Thank you very much, if you can - please help me!

kelloggs36

PUt it this way, I had a HSBC student account in year one and in year 2 applied to the Halifax and still have both accounts running. Trouble with Halifax is that they don't give anywhere near the 3k advertised - I don't know anybody who has been given it. They give you £500 and will usually up it to £1k upon further application once the account is opened but if you want more, they want to see money going into the account on a regular basis, otherwise 'computer says no'.

tinkerbel

oooo ok, thanks loads for this because I guess it's not worth doing if I can't get the whole 3K. hmmm leaves me more to ponder I guess..

TeaBoy_2

i've got 3k halifax, 1.5k natwest and 1.5k lloyds.

This required a few white lies.

tinkerbel

awesome, thanks! Any tips as to how you got the full 3k from halifax?

TeaBoy_2

i'm sure they started me off with 2k. then 2.7, and now 3k since i finished. i just requested the most possible which didnt seem a problem. Just tell them your considering switching student accounts because you want a higher overdraft.