Multiple Student Accounts

stuwilky

darbooka wrote:

And what about all those overseas students who (especially now that the government policy on immigration is toughening up so much) have to leave soon after their studies are over and won't have the extra time in country that UK colleagues do, for paying back the overdraft amounts? Can they be pursued abroad or credit-wise, or are their accounts just written off as bad debts?

They usually just arent allowed overdrafts.

darbooka

That information is quite surprising as I've known a number of overseas students at Uni who had the exact same student account as home students, to the best of my knowledge. I've heard that some banks will not even open accounts for overseas students but others will give the same services. It may depend on particular locality of branch and Uni's in the area and their experience with students there. In any event, in many cases a post-graduate overseas student who took a prior degree in the UK arguably will have been resident in the UK three years; however, a similar point can be made about UK students in light of the enlarged EU - if a graduating UK student has to leave the UK to take work abroad and the account remains difficult to pay from abroad due to lower currency value there or other reasons, what happens to the student account here? In America, I've heard that regarding credit cards after 7 years the statutes stipulate that the unpaid credit account / or credit record becomes clean and the person can start again. The question is, aren't banks taking big risks - and students taking minimal risks - in so much credit/overdraft when collection cannot be enforced against the account holder if they have to move abroad after studies? Or can it be enforced abroad?

stuwilky

No more risk than lending me £40k on credit cards.....

The theory is identical, as much chance of me disappearing overseas to get a job.

jaimeo

how would it not be enforceable? especially within the EU??

when i opened a french account they photocopied my passport, my driving licence and my birth certificate.

the same in england i believe all those yrs ago!

im sure they might choose not to pursue...but as to whether they CAN...