Co-operative bank student account 2011/2012: We want your feedback

mum1964

DS applied online for this account, applied Tuesday received paying in book Friday, debit card arrived following week and pin number arrived today. Did not need to speak to anyone. Account shows initial £300 deposit and overdraft of 1400. DS has withdrawn all money as he only wanted the 1400 to put into premim bonds. Will do the same in years 2 and 4.

kazzah60

Hi
DS applied for account online- had a letter asking for student finance paperwork and acceptance letter which we posted off ( kept a photocopy for ourselves as originals can't be returned)
5 days later cheque book arrived
5 days later letter asking for £300 deposit to activate debit card and £1700 overdraft ( son is in 2nd year)
no problems whatsoever
GREAT!

kateo

Well all in all - I can't really complain about opening this account. There was abit of 'radio silence' at the beginning after my son had submitted his online application. The first corespondence we had was a cheque book.

After he set up internet banking (very easy) & deposited £300 the card & pin swiftly followed. Last week he received a curtesy call.

At no point did my son have to provide proof of any kind ( He does already have an old A & L account).

funkycat

funkycat wrote: »

It says on the application that you must be a full time student going to uni......what if you are going part time to do a degree due to disability I can't do full-time (I have all the paperwork and offers etc to back this up)

Rang the student team (after being given the number from ringing the quoted 08457 number next to the online app) at Co-op to ask this question - 3 times - and was cut off every time. Are they only part-time too, cos I rang at 4.10pm?!

Would really like to know the answer to this, as HSBC offer a student acc to disabled students that are doing p/t degrees on production of a valid DSA assessment (which I have). Thanks to anyone that can help!
:beer::eek:

UPDATE: Applied for account anyway, and as I have already got a Smile account (tho dormant), thought it would be okay. Took weeks to get a response and I was turned down with no reasons given. Went to HSBC the next day, opened one on the spot with my UCAS letter, DSA asessment and regular ID. All paperwork and card arrived within 7days, job done! No fuss, no asking for more info and no delays..........

LESSON: If you are prepared to jump like a poodle, have your shoe size taken in triplicate (and double checked), you might get lucky and actually get this co-op accout - you lucky blighters! As for me....I'm closing my Smile account, cos hey...the experience with Co-op definately didn't make me smile........

Blairweech

Just a heads up for people getting this account - you have to ring them every year to confirm you are still a student, otherwise they will cancel your OD. I did not realise this and recieved a letter saying I had no money in the account and was being charged unpaid items fees etc :huh: Gave them a ring, it was no problem, they just tinkered with it, revised my OD and waved the fees :money:I have written a note in my diary for next year to remind me to ring them.
Overall I have found v. good customer service with Co Op (especially now they have bought britannia, makes it a bit easier to pay in etc) and would definitely recommend them

mihaiburcea

I applied on the 9th of September. Today is the 15th of October and still with no student account.

Timeline:

09.09 - applied online
15.09 - date of letter asking me to provide ID and proof of address
week; I provided the proofs within a week of receiving it in branch. Also, I have provided proof of funding (just in case they decided they needed something else). Also, I had to go in twice because the address on utilities bill differs from the one on application (living in a converted building -- think they used to be offices), so some companies use older systems rather than Royal Mail. Luckily, Lloyds had an address that matched for me, so had to wait for a statement from them.

*one month later*

Today, 15.10 - Phoned the Co-op (for 45 minutes from a mobile, so at least £6), asking what's going on because I haven't heard from them. Apparently, the branch only sent the documents *this week* (or that is when they received them), 11th of October.
Also, because I'm an existing customer with them and have the address "different" from the one on the application they were not happy and it seems that they haven't called me to tell me that. When I say "different" I mean it is written in a different way from the one on the application, even though it is the *same* address. They made me do another application over the phone.

Also, when I went in branch, I requested a new PIN for my current card. This was about 3 weeks ago. Never received it.

Please keep in mind that Royal Mail is aware of the different ways of expressing the addresses for where I live, so it's not an issue of delivery.

Will update if I ever get an account.

atypical

mihaiburcea wrote: »

Phoned the Co-op (for 45 minutes from a mobile, so at least £6)

Doesn't help you with your issue, but may save you money.

Have you heard of SayNoTo0870? Using that you can see that Co-op's 08457 240 752 is also accessible via 0800 0850950. If you're calling from a mobile you can use 0800Buster to call it using any inclusive minutes.

mihaiburcea

atypical wrote: »

Doesn't help you with your issue, but may save you money.

Thank you. I will look into it, but at the moment I don't have any free minutes with my provider (just texts), but maybe will consider switching! Thanks again.

mum1964

OMG from opening an account very easy the co op have sent a letter stating ds is o/d. Yeah we know tried to ring to be told they dont work weekends ring back on monday. Can see me and the coop falling out very quickly. Especially as they want to impose charges. What part of interest free o/d dont they get.

mihaiburcea

mihaiburcea wrote: »

I applied on the 9th of September. Today is the 15th of October and still with no student account.

(...)

Having received another letter from the co-op on 24th of October, asking me yet again to provide proof of ID and address, I had decided to close my current account and cancel my application with them and was supposed to go right now to Santander to open an account there. Luckily I checked the post to find a letter from them saying that the account has been opened and also found a cheque book from them.

I am very surprised that they linked my current and student accounts for internet banking though, even though I mentioned that when I made the application I thought it'd be necessary to call them again. Just transferred the money to activate the overdraft now. You don't actually get a debit card until you do so, so they say.

Today is the 26th of October, so, in total, the application took about one and a half months. I imagine it will take at least one week from now to received a debit card. The moral of the story is... if you need an overdraft urgently, don't go with the co-op.