Santander bank student account 2012/2013: We want your feedback

charzard

hi, is it possible to open an account to get the railcard and then never use the bank account?

or would santandar then cancel the rail card?

thanks and sorry if this has already been asked, but i really need the rail card but am not impressed by the feedback from other customers. thanks.

davethorp

Terms and conditions of the student account only allow you to have one student account and to have your main source of funding deposited to the account. That's pretty standard for all student accounts though. You would need to close the account if you intended to open an account elsewhere. I can't see them taking the railcard off you though especially as they just issue a code to use on the railcard website to allow you to order it for free.

I also wouldn't let the feedback put you off too much. You have to remember that unhappy customers tend to be a lot more vocal than happy ones. I've banked with Santander for 18 months now and haven't experienced any problems. On the rare occasions I have had to contact customer services (which you can count on one hand) I've found them friendly and helpful and my issues were resolved immediately

Miyata

Hey,

I opend an account recently and got the railcard code as well as £250 with no trouble.

I want to ask people on here, who know, will I get the £1,500 - I have transferred all the student loan money into santander and intend to use it as my main. Its just that by the time it got opened I was supposed to receive the student loan sooner, so I used another account not from Santander. But after getting all the account details, I straight away transfered most of my student loan there (spent like 100-200 by then). Its almost 5x the required £500 amount.

Will I get the £1,500 overdraft? I heard someone saying that they did not receive the overdraft and after making the call were told that the money must come from the student finance company.

gillhol1965

My daughter applied online and was accepted subject to proof of place but when they checked Ucas she was not listed as she didn't do her placement via Ucas, its a higher education college. She went into local branch today to explain and show her written confirmation of enrolment and that student loans etc were all in place and she was told that she is not eligible for this account as she is not showing on UCAS site even though she showed them her acceptance enrolment and student loan and grant paperwork! Has anyone else come across this?

Ddw123

I opened my santander 123 student account in may, drawn in by the poromise of a free 16-25 railcard, made my application but didnt have a suitabke picture to uoload. My progress was saved and as I am in the process of moving from scotland to wales in order to go to university I have been uabke to continue with it until now.

Tiday I went to upload my photograoh and thought I had better check that the detaiks were corrrect so I pressed 'back'. The website then asked me to put in my promotional code again, then said it was invalid.

I phoned santander and got through to a young man who put me on hold and then came back and told me I needed to phone the railcard company.

The railcard company have an automated message which comes up before you are put through saying that if you have a problem with your unique code you need to contact santander directly, and after speaking to a woman who told me that my cide had expired and I would need a new one I phoned santander again.

This time I git through to someone in belfast who was very rude and wanted to know why I was calling the mobile banking helpline about the railcard. After I had been given the oppertunity to explain he told be there was nothing they coukd do because it wasnt their website and if my code had exoired I cant be issued with a new one.

I then drive to my branch, which was shut, phoned raikcard again who told me that they had repeatedly asked santander what optiom to oress for these issues but they were refusing to come uo with this information. This tells me I havent been the first customer to exoerience this!

Ddw123

Miyata wrote: »

Hey,

I opend an account recently and got the railcard code as well as £250 with no trouble.

I want to ask people on here, who know, will I get the £1,500 - I have transferred all the student loan money into santander and intend to use it as my main. Its just that by the time it got opened I was supposed to receive the student loan sooner, so I used another account not from Santander. But after getting all the account details, I straight away transfered most of my student loan there (spent like 100-200 by then). Its almost 5x the required £500 amount.

Will I get the £1,500 overdraft? I heard someone saying that they did not receive the overdraft and after making the call were told that the money must come from the student finance company.

To activate my overdraft alk I had to do was go into it and wait for my wages to come un and pay it off, they then upped my overdraft amount.

cedgin

I have been trying to open a student account with Santander for about 6 months, either they too busy, or the times are not suitable for me, or it is when I am away. So finally I get an appointment, I went into the Northampton branch today, I booked an appointment a week ago, to discuss changing my current account with them to a student account, the adviser Natalie tells me all about the student account asks me if I want to open it, I say yes, she goes to find out what documentation I need, comes back to tell me I can't have the account because I am going into my second year.

I am so angry I've tried to open this account before, one of the tellers told me I could apply for it online, which I could not find, I explained my situation clearly to each person and they have not passed on the correct information, I have not started my second year yet and because I am about to start (beginning of October) they will not give me this account. What a waste of time.

Auntycaz

i wouldn't recommend Santander to anyone. My daughter chose to bank with them last year because of the free 4 year railcard the railcard. She already had a student rail card when she opened her account as she purchased it when she had to go for her university interviews. At the time she opened her account she was told that she would be able to get her 4 year rail card when her existing one ran out. This was also confirmed on several occassions both in branch and over the telephone, but when it came to actually getting it they reneged on their promise. After looking into it for several weeks they decided that she had been misinformed by all the members of staff she had spoken to.(at least 4). Dreadful bank, had an account with them myself in the past which I closed after they made so many mistakes.

farflight

I applied for the Santander student account the other day and have been very unfairly treated! Their computer system rejected me after the initial credit search, but because I explained I have never been overdrawn or otherwise careless with my money, they appealed against this. The upshot of it was that my credit score was too low.

On their suggestion, I got onto Experian Credit Control and checked my credit report for myself. Sure enough, no debts or other financial hiccups. I was even rated as "Fair" which if it means what it says, should be good enough for Santander!!
I went back to my local branch today to speak to the person in charge, but an advisor whisked my paperwork away and spoke to him herself. After this she came and explained to me they could not appeal a second time, or even override the system and just accept me apparently. My credit score seems to be too low for them because I have too little credit history, but as I told her, I'm a student applying for a student account, so surely most people applying for this account are mostly quite young with little history?!

I wanted this account due to the free railcard, but to add insult to injury I'm banned from applying to Santander for another 6 months. What!?

I've always felt quite adverse towards getting a credit card unless I actually need one, but it seems now I must get one and use it a bit for the sake of giving myself credit history. The system is crazy... Hope you enjoyed my lil rant.

Back-to-uni-again

Hi,

I've been looking at the Santander student account as a mature student. Unfortunately National Rail will only let mature students take a one year 16-25 railcard. I spoke to Santander about this and they confirmed that yes, mature students can only get one year free railcard on opening the account. (That swung it for me, I'll be keeping my 123 current account instead!)