Santander Student Account - Railcard

Mike_J

Per the top student account article.....

Santander 123 student account gives a free 4 year railcard but subject to conditions including ..... "You can only apply if you've an unconditional uni place, or you're already a student.".

I assume therefore that the vast majority of students applying for university this September will be unable to get one as they are likely to have "conditional offers" until results come out in August ?

Headline grabbing marketing ?

ehlo

Surely you hold off applying until results come out?

Mike_J

ehlo wrote: »

Surely you hold off applying until results come out?

If you mean applying to the university ............ no, these were done at the start of the year.

If you mean applying for the accounts..... then that is what I was on about. Students will already have planned for their student finance giving the relevant body details of the accounts into which they will be paying their loans etc.

Have Santander made the offer on the basis that practicalities, backup up by normal banking apathy and the fact that a lot of these students will have other stuff on their minds as many head to university for the first time ?

ehlo

I am of course referring to applying for the account . I played this game myself not long ago.

Most people presumably already have an existing bank account that can be used at the point of applying for a student loan.

Applying for a student account after getting results is annoying but ultimately should not be a huge drama as there are normally quite a few weeks between results and the start of university.
With the price of train tickets even when booking far in advance the savings are likely to far outweigh this minor inconvenience (more so as in this case the raildcard itself is also free!).

Clearly it would not be in any banks interest to provide freebies to people who do not end up in the market segment they are trying to target (students!).

If the student account is with the same bank then they will likely upgrade the existing account, keeping the same account number. If not then the account the loan is paid into can be quickly changed on the student loan website.

74jax

My daughter had an unconditional. For the loan she gave her current bank details. On confirmation of accommodation and when she was sure she was going, applied to santander. Then gave me details to student loan company.