Halifax Student Account. Did you get the full £3,000 overdraft

Kimono

I opened this account this year hoping to have the full amount, but started with £500, which is the same as everyone I know with the same account.
I've requested an increase twice and was given an extra £500 each time.
The first time I was told that I could only go up to £1000 in-branch, but the bank seemed quite happy to help and it was very quick.
The second time they seemed less willing and had to ring up another office to increase it. I also had to answer some questions about my income and after mentioning that I heard I could get £3000 in the first year I was told that the full amount was spread out over the duration of my course.

Chrismayn

I was never the best at budgeting, but when Halifax offered this overdraft I was chuffed to be able to get rid of my useless Barclays one.
I went into my local branch in Falmouth and an adviser took me through the whole process of moving my overdraft. He was very nice and said that it would take a month or so for them to approve the full amount needed (£1250-1500). A month went by and i applied again and they turned me down. By this time things were getting very tight (due to being on the old loan system but on the new fees system in the first year) and I had to pay rent cheques etc.. The long and the short of it was that they never approved my application and so I've ended up with two overdrafts to pay off at the end of my studies in July this year!
VERY UNIMPRESSED... It's left me thinking that all banks, once they have you as a customer, do very little to help you out. As soon as this debacle happened I applied for all the ridiculous charges back that had occured as a direct result of their mis-selling me their student account.
I'm in a better place now that I've been working part time for the duration of my course, but I would have been in a far better situation if Halifax had just done what they promised me.

jeyre1

I got £1000 straight off on the Halifax student account, but didnt ask for more.

Fraeya

I only asked for up to 1000 in my first year, but in my second year when my overdraft was "myteriously renewed" went in and asked for more, they just said no with no explanation.

JamesLegge

I'm in second-year and the most I've got out of them thus far is £1,600

adesai_2

I'm a fourth year student (six year course) and opened up a Halifax bank account in October last year. Since then I've been making regular £200.00 payments per week into the account (and pay around £800.00 pounds per month back out of it into my hsbc current account).

As I finished my last exam yesterday and had some time on my hands I called Halifax today (see saynoto0870.com for landline). I explained the end of the year was approaching and my final loan instalment had been rec'd and I wanted to increase my overdraft to £3000.00 to tie me over for the summer. I was told it was not at all possible to increase my overdraft for reasons unknown to the operator. She spoke to her manager who called the underwriters who said the criteria were:
(1) no adverse credit rating (I have none)
(2) regular payment into account (see above)
(3) length of time the account has been open (I.e as opposed to year of study)

She told me in no uncertain terms that If I called again in another six months once the account had been open for a year I would be entitled to increase my overdraft again (she would not disclose the amount).

Three issues
The first is that on the first time of asking I wasn't entitled to increase my overdraft at all - this was done at the discretion of the "manager" from £1000 to £1750.

The second is that while others have suggested Halifax place limits based on year of study this has not been the case for me. Rather, the length of time I have had the account for. This is not consistent with the customer in the article who had held a Halifax account for 12 years.

Finally, the girl on the phone seemed nice but was genuinely clueless and it seemed, powerless too. Every major company I ring the initial operator has a redundant function.

katiemac_3

i went to halifax when i started uni in sept 2006 because of the overdraft. I immediately got £1750 which they said was the max you could start on. I can't remember the exact times but i asked for more and they gave me a £250 increase. The reason they gave was that they wanted me to have money available for later on in my course if i needed it and wouldn't back down even though i explained i was deficit banking which they could check because my savings are with them as well.
I did get the full £2750 the 2nd time i asked in 2nd year and then £3000 when the limit went up to that.

I was mildly miffed that they had said it was possible to get it in first year when that clearly wasn't true but i'm still a fan as it's the best student account by far, their graduate account is pretty good and they've waived charges twice when i've accidently gone over my overdraft (a hazard of deficit banking).

atypical

katiemac wrote: »

wouldn't back down even though i explained i was deficit banking which they could check because my savings are with them as well.

You told them that? Isn't that reason for them not to increase your overdraft? I'd also be scared that they'd use setting off rules to forcibly pay back your overdraft.

NicC_2

I was given £1000 overdraft straight away when I started uni in the first year. I asked for this to be increased to the maximum (£2750 at the time) this was rejected and when I asked why no one seemed to know but guessed it was because I had had the account for less than a year, although that was never mentioned when I applied for the account etc. After I had had the overdraft for a full year (still in my first year at uni) I applied for the maximum loan and recieved it no problem and have had it without a problem ever since xx

Vicky34

I took this account out in my final year and was led to believe it would give me access to the £2750 overdraft as it was then. Only once I had applied did they tell me it would only be £500. With some persuasive arguing I got this up to £1000. However, still very short of the £2750 I needed and I ended up having to find part time employment in the months leading up to my finals to be able to buy food etc.