18 yr old wants to gain current account haul

mel48rose

My friend's son has just turned 18. He is still in education but is quite good at saving his allowance. How could he cash in on the latest offers from the banks ie, switching etc? He has a childs account with Lloyds and Halifax. Any helpful advice would be welcome thanks.

JuicyJesus

He will probably find it quite hard to get a switching offer from the banks, as if he is still in education he likely has no full time and will therefore not be able to meet their salary requirements.

I would focus for the time being on earning him as much money as possible from savings. Get the basics down first.

Kim_13

First of all he'll need to ensure that he's on the electoral roll. He should get a Noddle account and check the report to see if he is already on it (on checking my report, I found that I'd been on it since 4 months before my 18th birthday.)

I'm not so sure a haul will do him a lot of favours given he has no credit history. How much money could he cycle through accounts each month to meet the pay in requirements?

A Tesco account may be good for him as there is no longer a minimum pay in, so he can just get 3% interest on the savings he has (assuming they're less than 3k.) You are allowed 2 but they may be sceptical about giving multiple accounts to someone with no credit history. Make sure he asks for no overdraft.

[Deleted User]

Before this question can be answered, we need to think bigger.

1) What's his current balance across all accounts?
2) Does he have any debts? (Credit cards, store cards, overdrafts?)
3) What's his income level, and how often?
4) Of that income, how much is he able to save back each month?
5) How many things does he (or could he) pay by direct debit?

mel48rose

Thanks sounds like Tesco might be an option for him then. I will pass it on.

Paul_1977

mel48rose wrote: »

My friend's son has just turned 18. He is still in education but is quite good at saving his allowance. How could he cash in on the latest offers from the banks ie, switching etc? He has a childs account with Lloyds and Halifax. Any helpful advice would be welcome thanks.

Did they not upgrade it as he is now 18?

pogofish

If he is still in education, is there not a student current account they can offer?

IME they can be fairly quickly upgraded to full status as his situation changes.

Kim_13

pogofish wrote: »

If he is still in education, is there not a student current account they can offer?

IME they can be fairly quickly upgraded to full status as his situation changes.

If he has recently turned 18 he'll still be in school/college at the moment, so not eligible for a student account (requires Higher Education in all cases, I believe.)

mel48rose

Kim_13 wrote: »

If he has recently turned 18 he'll still be in school/college at the moment, so not eligible for a student account (requires Higher Education in all cases, I believe.)

I believe he plans to go to uni in September.

mel48rose

Paul_1977 wrote: »

Did they not upgrade it as he is now 18?

Apparently neither bank have notified of any change??

Kim_13

mel48rose wrote: »

I believe he plans to go to uni in September.

The bank will not upgrade to a student account until he has a confirmed place, although he can ask to be moved to a full current account in the meantime if he wishes.

Many child accounts allow the benefits to be retained for a while after turning 18, so this may be why nothing has come from the banks.