Student in need:is it possible to have 2 student accounts?

ihavenomoneyleft

I am a dreadful person when it comes to money and somehow i have been able to spend my student loan and my whole overdraft! I'm starting work in 2 weeks and have some money to get me by, however, i have pre booked holidays which i definately do not have the spending money for! Please someone give me some amazing advice??!? I've tried applying for loans but being a full time student doing under 16 hours work a week i don't qualify!

Is it illegal to get 2 student accounts and have the 0% interest on the overdraft?!! SOMEONE HELP

Lokolo

It depends on the individual accounts but usually no. It's usually a bad idea to do that as banks can withdraw the overdraft and sell the debt to debt collectors.

Applying for numerous credit in a short space of time will also have a big impact on your credit searches in the future and banks will likely reject you, as they know you are looking for credit everywhere.

Perhaps budgeting skills be learnt this summer...?

tom717

I don't know about the legality of having two student accounts, it's probably against t+c's. A bank running a credit check will see your current maxed out overdraft and almost certainly will not offer you another.

You may be able to extend your student overdraft beyond the 0% limit but it will probably be costly.

Also, if you are starting work in two weeks, are you still a student? Is it just a summer job or a permanent position? When is the holiday? Depending on the answer to these and other questions I would strongly consider abandoning your holiday plans. You don't want to get into a dangerous level of debt over it.

callum9999

Lokolo wrote: »

It depends on the individual accounts but usually no. It's usually a bad idea to do that as banks can withdraw the overdraft and sell the debt to debt collectors.

Applying for numerous credit in a short space of time will also have a big impact on your credit searches in the future and banks will likely reject you, as they know you are looking for credit everywhere.

Perhaps budgeting skills be learnt this summer...?

Banks tend not to credit check student accounts. They don't for me anyway.

Impet_Limpet

I'm quite sure they routinely run credit checks when opening student accounts, that's why people get turned down.

In answer to your original question it is possible to have two but you need to check T&C of the individual accounts. You should know that banks are allowed to ask for the overdraft back at ANYTIME THEY WANT.

Regarding your debt, this potentially is a serious problem. As you are already having trouble managing your budget with one overdraft and your loan I suspect your lack of discipline will drop you into a serious position as you are likely to max out the second overdraft too. Don't worry though, we are not all born knowing how to budget, but now you really really need to learn quickly and it will be painful as there is no magic fix. (I had to do it myself!)

What year are you in at university? In anything other than the final year you need to take action now. From your post I'm assuming you have spent all you student loan that is intended to keep you going until September.

You should spend this summer building up your funds for September earn and save as much as you can.

I strongly recommend you cancel your holiday/have someone go in your place. The time you could be on holiday you could be earning and more crucially you really need to try and reduce your overdraft while you have the chance in case you need it in the next academic year.

It's great that you have a job lined up, but don't spend your money as you earn it assuming that you put next months wage away, people lose jobs, firms cut hours, you could become poorly. Also the risk of spending money as you earn it mean you'll get used to that level of living/income and find it hard to adjust when back to living off the student loan. (When I started uni I went from a full time job earning £8k - £12k for 4 years, living at home and running a car - to living in halls off a student grant, it was a shock!)

Related to the point above, live frugally over summer - cut down your leisure spending - don't meet up with mates for meals out/coffee all the time, cinema. You also need to make a note of what you are spending your money on

Learn to budget - there are tons of guides on the site that will help you cut down your costs. You need to work out what money you'll have aviilable when you return to university, (your available overdraft should not be counted) and work out how much you can spend per week and be disciplined enough to stick to it you really need to learn this yourself (but if you really can't at first, do you have a relative who can transfer an appropiate amount of money across to your account each week/month).

Have a go at this to work out how much you are spending

http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/banking/Budget-planning

melancholly

callum9999 wrote: »

Banks tend not to credit check student accounts. They don't for me anyway.

from the article on the main page:

"When you apply for any debt product, including a bank account with an overdraft, the lender will credit score you. This is to decide how desirable a customer you are based on behavioural predictions from all your prior financial data. Yet as a student, it's likely there will be very limited data on you, which makes credit scoring very difficult. Sadly this can leave some students rejected due to ridiculous anomalies, and there may be no rhyme, reason or solution to this."

http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/banking/Student-bank-account

OP - if you look at the details of student accounts at the bottom of that article it summarises which ones allow you to open more than one. just be aware that a few failed loan applications plus lots of applications for student accounts won't look good on any credit report.

HOWEVER (and it's a big however), they can withdraw your overdraft/s at any time. it's not a great strategy. if you already have pre-booked multiple holidays, the best advice is to cancel one/all of them if you can't afford them. even if you lose the deposit, it's better than getting into unnecessary debt.

for some cash at the moment, try selling any text books you don't need. go through your room/wardrobe and try ebay, or a boot sale for more instant money. could you ask your family for a loan that you could pay back when you start working?

skater_kat

access to learning fund at your uni?

contact your student union welfare / advice service

melancholly

skater_kat wrote: »

access to learning fund at your uni?

contact your student union welfare / advice service

i really hope that the access to learning fund won't give out holiday spending money...... it's for people who have unforeseen circumstances and can't pay for basics (although an application won't take too much time and may be worth a shot for the OP - but I don't think that it's what the ALF is all about)

nabeelv

from what i know its not illegal to have two student accounts as long as you pay money into both of them so say you opened up a second account but paid your wages from work into that account the bank should be ok with it...I told my bank i already had one student account but I will be paying my wages into this account (natwest) and the person sorting the account out said thats fine .....hope it helps ........worst comes to worst maybe an evil credit card could help you out .....just make sure you pay it off before the interest starts...

paulwellerfan

i had three student accounts.... ooopppps.
which then became three grad accounts
and are now 3 current accounts.
i dont owe any thing ( balance wise ) on any of them now though.