BBC Three: How to Rob a Bank!! (Student Debt WARNING)

atypical

Not sure if it's illegal, but it's normally against the terms and conditions of the account. Though looking at the Halifax terms and conditions it doesn't seem to state anywhere that the Halifax account should be the main account or that you should deposit things like your student loan into it, unlike the NatWest account.

Rather than getting further into debt (the allure of £3,000 more may be too much for you) why not consider other sources like University hardship funds or your parents perhaps?

andrina_nightshade

I signed up for an RBS student account on my first day of uni (I'll admit, they gave me a bag of freebies containing a teddy bear, and it was hard to say no ) Only took the minimum overdraft and I've never used it. It's really been a place to hide my birthday/Christmas money so I didn't waste it (at the time, I was totally ignorant of savings accounts, etc.)

My main account was always with HBOS. One day when I was cashing a cheque, I found myself having an account review, where I got upgraded from a basic, teenage bank account to a proper account complete with a Visa card (instead of the silly little Visa Electron I'd had for so long). Signed all the paperwork, and thought nothing of it.

It wasn't until some documentation came through the post that I realised it was a student account they'd given me, complete with a £500 overdraft. I only vaguely remember mentioning I was student; I wasn't asked for any proof, but then again I suppose they could see I'd had my student loan paid into that account. I was never asked if I had a student account at any other bank (unlike when I joined RBS - they were adament I should have no other active student account).

I don't know what the policy is on your other student account, but the next time I had an account review, the advisor told me I had to keep paying my student loan into the account, or making other regular payments into the account (by this time, I'd had the overdraft extended to £1000, and only ever been ~£150 into it), otherwise they would bring me back to the minimum overdraft.

Unless you have some regular source of money, be it a part time job or a loan/bursary/grant, I wouldn't get a Halifax student account. As Willowx says, the bank can demand the money back at any time. I think they only need to give 14 days notice, but maybe someone else can clarify that for you? I'd find out if you're eligible for a University hardship fund before I'd open another account.

kt220787

whitfreak wrote: »

Isnt lying to your bank to get money technically fraud? Thus the "outlandish" statement about him going to prison isnt so outlandish. What confuses me the most is the fact that they could open both rbs and natwest accounts, I thought they used the same computer systems....

Might be cus I went to a ""proper"" university, but all of my mates understood that overdrafts had to be repayed in the end. Yes some of them had money problems (a couple even had multiple overdrafts) through drinking and buying too crap much but they did so knowing that the banks would chase them if they didnt repay it at some point. Maybe we do need a keyfacts document for student accounts that points out that overdrafts are debt (repayable on demand), rather than losing that fact among the railcards and true free money.

In response to this programme and the above quote: I went to the University of Central Lancashire which, may I add, is a "proper" University. I think it's unfair that you have seemed to have lumped the entire of the UCLan population together(which is made up of 32,000 students) as being unable to handle their finances.
What was not highlighted in this film was there are A LOT of facilities that are offered free to students to help them deal with their money and debt problems - something that I believe is not available in some Universities.

As previously mentioned, probably the mixture of being fully independent for the first time and getting a loan ( which many forget after you start earning £15,000 and over you have to start paying it back) can get you easily into debt.
As you have have mentioned, some of your mates had debt problems - and so do some of mine, but none of us have gone to the extremes that the student did highlighted in the film. The banks should take some responsibility for not sharing information between each other to stop this from happening - however students themselves should also take some responisiblity in their own finances.