Student bank account + credit rating

seanmc89

hi,

I have recently applied to my current bank halifax in which i have a standard card-cash account with (no credit facilities or overdraft) and also Natwest, for a student bank account. I have been turned down at both of these banks because of my credit rating. I'm afraid that if i carry on applying and getting refused that i will never get an account which i think is necessary for university.

As far as I know my parents are on the IVA scheme and i was wondering whether this was having any bearing on the outcome of my applications.

Is there anything I can do to improve my credit rating or are there any banks that are lenient with the accounts they give out, that i may have a chance of getting an account with.

Thankyou in advance, desperately need your help

Sean

Kazzajr

Hiya

You don't need a student account for uni, I only have a basic bank account (due to having bad credit myself ) which my loan is paid into, obviously the downside is I have no overdraft, I don't even have a debit card which can be difficult at times. So there should be no problems with you getting your loan paid into the account you have already.

However on the whole I find it better as I budgeted for the year ahead and am only spending money I actually have and will only have my student loans to pay back at the end of my course. But then I went mad at 18 with credit cards/loans etc so I think me and credit aren't a good mix.

I don't know if it is your parents credit situation that is having an adverse affect on your credit rating, I thought they only looked into the individual and not the address nowadays?

Good luck sorry I'm not much help maybe someone who knows more will be along and let you know if there is another solution.

CLAPTON

check your credit files and see what they say..they may have mixed you up with your father

seanmc89

Ok thanks for the responses, I think I might just leave the student account alone for the first year and see how it goes.

Maybe I will be able to get one after the first year of university

Thanks

Sean

MightyBlades

I had the same problem; HSBC turned me down, as well as Halifax and some others. Try Llyods TSB. They accepted me. Also, i had to use my student bank account - just depends how rich you are

Clive_Woody

My little brother got turned down for a bank account at Natwest when he was off to Uni, he had only just turned 18, so had never had the chance to be tempted with credit before that. Natwest said he had a black mark on his credit history. He requested a copy and all it had on it was his name and address, so god knows what Natwest were talking about. He opened an account with Lloyds no problem.

Wolfsbayne

To be honest you're better off sticking with a basic bank account. When I started uni first time round I had a £750 overdraft (which ended up at £2000 and yes, all got spent on nights out, clothes and other non-essentials). I also got offered the student credit card and again ran up a large bill on that. Then, when I graduated I was offered a graduate personal loan which I used to move into a house but then things got sour, couldn't pay back what I owed and now have a bad credit rating.

Im at uni for a second time now and just have a basic bank account and this hasn't been a problem. I get my NHS bursary paid in monthly, I pay my bills as soon as possible after that and budget accordingly. So far, that's worked fine and I haven't needed any extra money, etc though when I graduate next year things might get hard.

Student bank accounts are there (in my honest opinion) to entice young people with great offers of 'you can have all this cash now' and a lot of students, me included, took them up on that offer with the belief that finding a job after graduation would be easy - which it isn't.

So my advice is, if you don't need it don't try and get it. If you do run into difficults at uni you can go to student support for help including emergency loan and hardship loans.