HSBC - Student Account

wrighty43

Hey

I was wanting some advice with regards to my student account.

I have been at uni 5 years, and have a student account with HSBC, which entitles me to a intrest free overdraft whilst i am at uni of up to 2,000, and when i cease being a student this drops down by 500 every year.
Now i rang up to extend my overdraft the other day from 1,500 to 2000, which they said was fine, but the person on the phone warned me that as its my final year i need to pay it back before i finish my course or i would be charged an obscene amount of interest on it. He said this trying to be nice, and said it was a new change and that i would be notified by post in the near future. Now this was at least a month ago and i have heard nothing about this and am wondering why, and secondly how can they possibly do this as the are changing the entire fundamentals of the account that i signed up for. Every student account i know of operates in this way so i dont see how they can just change it.

Any advice would be really welcome as otherwise i am either going to have survive off less money this year or change banks (which is a real hassle having to sort the student loan stuff out and moving overdraft etc. )...

Cheers

Lokolo

The guy most probably didn't know that the overdraft gets reduced in steps rather than in one big go. So if you went from 0% to 18.9% you would see huge amounts of interest, around £30 a month on a £2k overdraft.

wrighty43

the impression i got though was the bank was going to change it :S

gt94sss2

wrighty43 wrote: »

I was wanting some advice with regards to my student account.

I have been at uni 5 years, and have a student account with HSBC, which entitles me to a intrest free overdraft whilst i am at uni of up to 2,000, and when i cease being a student this drops down by 500 every year.

Any advice would be really welcome as otherwise i am either going to have survive off less money this year or change banks (which is a real hassle having to sort the student loan stuff out and moving overdraft etc. )...

From when I graduated.. HSBC should switch your student account to their current Graduate account (or whatever version exists when you finally graduate). It currently states:

Your interest–free overdraft

Up to £1,500 in the first year after graduation.
Up to £1,000 in the second year after graduation.

It should be done automatically but no harm checking that this is done correctly when the time comes..

Regards
Sunil

Sharon87

Every time it changes they send you a letter a month before it changes.

I had the Graduate account and the above post is correct. The guy on the phone probably didn't know what he was talking about it.

But this is based on you maintaining the account - regular money going in and out, not going over your limit - otherwise it could get withdrawn completely and you will get lots of charges.