Top Student Accounts 2010/11 MSE Guide discussion area

oldie21

replacement terms and conditions arrived today for my daughters natwest student account, opened a year ago, They say that at least £750 must be paid into the account every 3 months. Is this a change and how can any student manage that when the student finance is only paid 3 times a year?????? During the summer months what will happen to the account, will they cancel it?

atypical

I got this letter too. The requirement used to be a minimum of 3 debits a month and 1 credit every 3 months (which is essentially the same) but there never used to be an amount required. If you don't meet the requirement they won't close the account. but they may remove the interest free overdraft and railcard.

I recently saw some stats that showed NatWest has the highest percentage of frẹẹloaders (apparently you're not allowed to use this word) i.e. people who open the account just to use the 0% overdraft. This is probably an effort to combat that.

edit: According to Student Room NatWest has realised it was a bit silly and are now changing it to £750 every 6 months.

devildog

oldie21- I did phone them and ask for clarification on this and although it(badly) states £750 every 3 months what they are actually saying is an average of £750 per three months. It doesn't actually have to go into the account every 3 months though. So lets say a student receiving £6000 per year paying this money into a Nat West account would equate to £1500 per 3 months(even though technically only going in three times year, when Student Finance pay)

atypical

NatWest sent me a text today asking me to visit a random website (they got the URL wrong) because they've updated the changes they are making to the student account. Sure enough, it has now changed to £750 every 6 months:
http://www.natwest.com/personal/students/g1/student-current-account/account-details.ashx