How many student accounts can I have?

shanewhittington

I have just become a student for the second time (PGCE, 2 year course) and I don't feel like I made enough of the free overdrafts the first time round! I have ready somewhere that even though I'm not doing my 1st degree I should still get accepted for a student account at most places and also that there are no laws or anything saying that I can have as many accounts as the banks will let me. So what I'm wanting to do really is get a whole load of overdraft and stick it in a savings account.

What do people think to this? Will I be able to get away with it? Am I right in thinking that I should be able to get multiple student overdrafts (with different banks, obviously!)?

Any advice, help, thoughts on this appreciated!

Lokolo

You can do it but its unlikely to work for very long.

Banks will recall overdrafts on unused accounts so unless you plan on using them you will have to keep an eye on the accounts and you will need instant access as well. Of which rates aren't that great.

But if you want to put the effort in then you may as well.

sarahmanchester

Hi, my friend did this when we were at uni and as shanewhittington said, the bank can demand you repay the overdraft at any point if you are not using the account.

My friend had an overdraft of 1200 with HSBC and as it sat empty they contacted him and said he needed to pay it back at a rate of 100quid a month until it was paid off. If you are just starting out in your career this can be a significant amount of your salary.

If you have a couple of these and they demand it back around the same time it's a nightmare! After this happened with HSBC my friend went overdrawn on another account, by accident, and he now has to pay that back at 100quid a month too. So it really does build up. This has happened to a few people I know. My advice would be only open them if you are going to be putting money into the accounts.

Alot of them give free gifts - £50 in cash when you open, free 5year student rail card etc. If you have a lot of self control it's worth opening the accounts for these but then not using th overdrafts.

laura_144

I've had two student accounts since I started university in 2007 and have never had any problems. I have my loan paid into the account I don't use for anything else, then transfer the money into my main account so it looks like I'm using both. I have the overdraft from the first account in a savings account.

That said, I think it really depends which banks you're using. Some of them really seem to check up on what you're doing, whilst others don't pay much attention.