Eligible for a student account?

hermante

jonesMUFCforever wrote: »

I disagree.
Banks tend to specify that 'aliens' have to be here for a minimum of 3 years before they will think of letting them have credit facilities.

OP do you have an Irish or UK passport (and driving licence) ?

Irish citizens are hardly aliens in the UK, they have more rights than any other citizens who have not obtained ILR.

A driving licence has nothing to do with nationality, and only shows your place of birth.

Anyway, I'm Aussie and I got a student overdraft and credit card with HSBC UK before I even set foot in this country.

My friend is a British citizen but moved to Australia when he was young and returned to the UK at the same time I came. He was declined a student account and credit card. No bank wanted to deal with him until the university printed a special letter actually requesting that a bank open an account for him.

jonesMUFCforever

hermante wrote: »

Irish citizens are hardly aliens in the UK, they have more rights than any other citizens who have not obtained ILR.

A driving licence has nothing to do with nationality, and only shows your place of birth.

Anyway, I'm Aussie and I got a student overdraft and credit card with HSBC UK before I even set foot in this country.

My friend is a British citizen but moved to Australia when he was young and returned to the UK at the same time I came. He was declined a student account and credit card. No bank wanted to deal with him until the university printed a special letter actually requesting that a bank open an account for him.

Irish residents are not permanently resident in UK and therefore in most cases will not get credit facilities.
The relevance of 3 years ago is that small thing called the credit crunch - things are a lot harder to get these days!

tim131

Sorry for the late reply folks, I've been without the internet for some time. Ok, I have an Irish passport, and have been living permanently in the UK for 2 years almost, I intend to be here permanetly for the forseeable future, I've been out of the country maybe a maximum of 30 days, each year, not all take at once, I pay taxes like a British citizen would etc. My credit rating should be grand, I've been late with a few 02 mobile bills, but always pay them, so I dunno if that effects credit? If it helps, I opened a lloyds account recently, they had to do a credit check, and it went through.

I just really want the account so as that I have a bit of fall back cash, with the overdraft you see, so do you think I would be eligible, some banks are saying you've to be here for 3 years??

I'm hoping I get the student finance grant/loan thing, as I think technically I would be classes as a EEA worker/migrant, but who knows, thats why I was wondering about the student a/c / overdraft!

Thanks for all your replies though

jonesMUFCforever

What account did LLoyds give you?
Were you offered an overdraft or credit card?

tim131

jonesMUFCforever wrote: »

What account did LLoyds give you?
Were you offered an overdraft or credit card?

Nope I wasn't offered them, It was just a basic account you see, I was in Scotland at the time, and explained I was going to study in England, and they said, open a basic account now, and drop into a branch down south ad they will see about giving you a student a/c but they couldn't just now, as I'm a new customer, with no lloyds credit rating or something, like they said once I make a few transactons, it shouldn't be a problem. Dunno if it was just sales tactics to try and get me to open an account, knowing fully well I wouldnt be able to get a student one... cos I just checked there, need to be resident for 3 years

jalexa

tim131 wrote: »

Nope I wasn't offered them, It was just a basic account
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My personal experience is that once you have a Lloyds Cashpoint (or basic) account you will be blocked from any form of credit. Somebody recently posted the reason, an internal flag is set which trumps even a good credit record.

When/if you want and qualify for a student account I suggest you choose another bank.