Is there any point in me getting a student account?

kymbogs

Hi guys,
I'm wondering if there would be any benefit for me of getting a student bank account?
I had a false-start at uni 6 years ago and left after about 5 months due to illness, I still have the bank account I had then with the first-year overdraft of just over £1k, I pay off a little each week into it to keep them happy.

I'm married with 2 kids and we have a joint bank account which at the moment gets everything paid in and out of this. If I opened a student account it's usually a condition that your loans etc get paid in to this account if I remember correctly? In which case I'd just end up transferring the loan money into our joint current account anyway, would this be a problem do you think?

I don't really want to end up with another student overdraft but do you think it would be worth having it there just in case?

Any ideas welcome!

Kimberley

Lokolo

Not if you're going to spend it no.

You spent your first loan + £1k in first 5 months of uni. I don't think having an overdraft would do you any good.

I thought about getting an overdraft but I ended up spending it all on crap, so have now removed it to stop me doing it.

MrsManda

Lokolo is probably right if you're just going to end up spending it when you can't afford to pay it back. However I'm in the same setup as you (minus the kids) and I do have a student account with a large OD. It doesn't take much time to transfer the student loan into the joint account three times a year. I don't need the money but it's interest free so I used to overpay my mortgage. I can take it back out of the mortgage if I need to repay the OD at any point but until then, it's reducing the term of my mortgage
But I wouldn't have done it if I thought I'd spend the money without any direct means of paying it back.

kymbogs

Hiya,
Yeah I think you're right. There were circumstances surrounding me spending it so quickly before - I was suffering from manic depression and us manic depressives love to spend money to briefly feel better and of course it doesn't work...I was living with a manipulative controlling boyfriend who didn't work and in the state of mind I was in at the time, I thought he was wonderful and did everything he asked me to - including 'just get some cash out so I can go out tonight' and 'just buy these gig tickets' etc. Talk about the biggest mistake of my life!

Also, although my parents were income assessed for my loan and to see if I could get any help with tuition fees, I wasn't financially supported by then and paid the tuition fees out of my loan which was a fairly big chunk.

So although I have no intention of making the same mistakes again I do know I am unreliable with money and agree it's probably not a good idea for me to get an overdraft. I just thought if there were some great benefits it may be worthwhile but probably not worth the risk.

Thanks for listening

Kimberley x

MrsManda

One thing which may be worth getting a student account for is if you travel by train at all it may be worth getting Natwest account for the railcard. Given your history, you could ask for the account without an overdraft facility.

lrr_2

MrsManda wrote: »

I don't need the money but it's interest free so I used to overpay my mortgage. I can take it back out of the mortgage if I need to repay the OD at any point but until then, it's reducing the term of my mortgage
But I wouldn't have done it if I thought I'd spend the money without any direct means of paying it back.

I never thought of that! Good idea! I wasnt sure if I wanted a student account or not but will now get one and put the overdraft into my mortgage!

Thanks for the heads up!

MrsManda

lrr wrote: »

I never thought of that! Good idea! I wasnt sure if I wanted a student account or not but will now get one and put the overdraft into my mortgage!
Thanks for the heads up!

remember to check that you don't have any penalities for overpaying/taking the money back out.