Need to reorganise my accounts!

lil_lisa

Hi everyone! I was wondering if anyone could help me figure out the best way to do this!

I currently have accounts with 3 banks:
HSBC - Current a/c i've had since I was 13 and a joint a/c with other half.
NatWest - Student A/C (wanted free railcard)
Lloyds TSB - I work a weekend shift for them and need a Lloyds a/c for my salary to get paid into.

I'm sick of juggling between the 3 banks so I want to streamline. I can't close down the ltsb a/c or I wont get paid and I need the HSBC account because of the joint a/c (tried to convince other half to change banks too but there was no budging him!) so the natwest one will have to go.

Here comes the tricky part....

My student a/c is about £800 OD which isn't a problem as i'll have my loan (around £1000) paid at the beginning of term which will pay off the OD so I can close that account. But, as far as I know you can't have 2 student accounts at the same time and i'm worried that since i'm about to go into my 3rd year they wont let me open a new student account and i'll be left without my student OD, which I need, and i'll only have £200 left of my loan for the whole term!!

I know that I have a bad internal rating with HSBC coz I don't have a regular 'income' going into that account. I tried to ask for an OD with them and they refused and when I looked into the Lloyds student a/c I was told that if I already have a current a/c with them then they would convert it to a student a/c but I may not be able to do that as it's a staff account and different from a regular current a/c

Do you think I should get 2 student a/c's running at that the same time just to make sure I definitely can get the new account and the OD I need? What do you think?

Broke_Student

A few pieces of information that might help you:
- Natwest gives a 5 year railcard on the student account. If you close the account now, you will not continue to recieve the railcard for the next two years.
- You are technically 'not allowed' to have more than one student account because the banks terms & conditions state that you must pay your student income into the student account. However, many students do open more than one and they often get away with it. As long as you make a few deposits into each student account each year, the bank is unlikely to have a problem with the the running of your account. The worst that will happen is that they will ask you to close the account and repay any overdraft so keep the 'real' student loan going into your favourite bank before transfering funds elsewhere yourself.
- Have you considering setting up a standing order? You could ask LloydsTSB to set up a monthly standing order for the sum of your salary to be paid into your Natwest student account (HSBC current account) the day after pay day. That way you can just forget about the LloydsTSB account and the Natwest student account for all your finances without too mch hassle.

In my opinion it would be abit silly to mess with converting your staff account to a student account and closing your old student account, with the risk of completely loosing your overdraft, at a time when you appear to need the credit available to you. I would keep the Natwest account to ensure you do not loose its benefits.

i'll only have £200 left of my loan for the whole term!!

DON'T PUT YOURSELF IN THAT SITUATION!

Also, if you MUST open another student account, it may be more difficult as you are in your third year (banks are suspicious of students going after a second overdraft). They may ask you to prove you didn't open one elsewhere during your course. If it is a genuine change of provider then it shouldn't be too much of a problem. Just explain your situation and show them the closing statement of your old student account so they believe you.

fidgetgreen

hey random question but how did u get the lloyds job?

lil_lisa

fidgetgreen wrote: »

hey random question but how did u get the lloyds job?

They just happen to have a telephone banking centre close to where I live and my mother works for job centre so she told me when they were advertsing vacancies for a weekend shift.

It's really handy actually, the training was like 'bank school' and they taught us the best way to be efficient with money so that we could let customers know. I had a credit card with tesco before but I didn't realise that the first month the purchase is on the card you don't get charged interest on it. The card only has a balance of £250 on it (I requested the minimum balance) so every month I transfer £250 over to my high interest savings account, buy every thing on the credit card and gain club card points then at the end of the month pay off the card in full with the money from the savings. If I max out the card then it's fine because i've got the money set aside for it and if I don't then it's a bonus I have extra money tucked away in savings. Would never have thought of doing that before!

Badger_Lady

You don't need the Lloyds account.

They tell you it's needed for wages, but in fact after your first month with them you can close it down and ask for your salary to be paid into a different account. It's a legal requirement for them to do so, they just don't advertise it.

If you PM me, I can tell you where to change your payroll details...