Switching from Student to Current Account

TuitionFees

Hello all,

I'm a student and so currently have a student account. The main reason I use it is because of the relatively generous interest-free overdraft which admittedly i dip into occasionally but never more than thrice a year and never more than half my allocation. My question is am i able to switch from my student account to a traditional current account? I see some quite tasty savings rates and other sweetners (cashback on bills and such) that I think would make it worth switching for. I don't really have any credit history (do a bit of matched betting) so how likely would my chances of getting access to a regular current account (and so therefore all the perks and associated high-interest savings accounts) be?

Sorry for the keyboard waffle,

T

binaryuniverse

I believe you could, but the question is it worth losing access to that overdraft? What happens if an emergency occurs?

If you can set up a secondary account, and switch that, then do that instead. Then you get the best of both worlds.

TuitionFees

binaryuniverse wrote: »

I believe you could, but the question is it worth losing access to that overdraft? What happens if an emergency occurs?

If you can set up a secondary account, and switch that, then do that instead. Then you get the best of both worlds.

Thanks for the insight, the thought of a secondary account had not crossed my mind. I assume one would be subject to a credit check if opening a new regular current account, as opposed to switching?

T

binaryuniverse

You'd get a credit check regardless of whether you open a new account or switch. However, a switch would only have one search, whereby opening a secondary account and switching that could have 2 searches. It depends on the bank, and what information they may already have on you. Depending on who your current provider is, they may allow you to open a second account without a search on your file showing.

However, I've opened many new current accounts, over the last year. The amount of searches and new accounts hasn't seemed to have hampered down my ability to open more.