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

glidingrules

On the advice of money saving expert, I attempted to switch to the co-op student bank account last year, mainly for the purposes of getting an overdraft but also to get a chequebook (I was previously with the Yorkshire building society, which did not offer either). It was a complete disaster. I was continually messed around by the co-op losing documents, taking too long to process documents once the replacement ones were sent and then informing me that, due to their ineptitude my application had expired and would have to be totally resubmitted! In addition to this, they didn't even let me know about these problems, I only found out because, due to the prolonged silence from the co-op bank account after submitting my application, I had to go into the bank to find out what had been happening. The bank staff were not particularly helpful, they said that since it was a student account it wasn't their department and I should get in touch with the coop student bank account. However, they didn't have access to an actual person who was in the student bank accounts department in their bank and told me to phone the student bank accounts department. I had already done so, but all that happened was you were put through 5 minutes of talking to a machine and then the phone hung up on you. I tried this several times (stupidly) and each time this occured, wasting time and phone credit. Despite applying for this bank account 6 weeks before my first accomodation payment was due in, my bank account was nowhere near ready on time and I had to get a 'bankers draft' from the yorkshire building society to pay my accomodation fees. The co-op's staff's response to this was along the lines of 'oh well, the university are very unlikely to kick you out even if your payment for accomodation is a bit late' - if you mess someone around that badly, at least be appologetic! In the end I cancelled my account with them because I didn't want to trust them with my money or ever deal with them again. This was a huge unnecessary stress at just the time I was starting university and I know at least one other person who has had trouble with the co-op student bank account. The staff were not particularly helpful - at one point one of them suggested I move all my savings from one account to the other by putting the money in my handbag and trying to look inconspicous. This bank account is a total disgrace and I would strongly advise other students against choosing them. They attract your attention with the promise of a huge overdraft, but they put you through so much trouble just to get the bank account set up...I dread to think what it would be like actually using it! Save yourself a whole bunch of stress and stay well away from this account.