Son struggling to get Student Bank Account

shopaholicnumber1

My 18 year old son has been declined for an HSBC student account citing his credit history as a reason. He was only 18 in June, so I tried on the Experian website to create a free account to check what was going on and his details aren't recognised. I tried again on Credit Karma and the same thing happened. He has had a Lloyds account since he was in his mid-teens and obviously had no overdraft facility available, so I would like to check that there has been no fraudulent activity that we are unaware of. Is it normal for a student account to be declined on the basis of an 18 year old not having a credit history? One thought that did occur to me is that we only moved house in March and he has only just submitted himself onto the Electoral Register - would a student account require this as some students won't actually be 18 yet (those with birthdays at the end of August).

Any wisdom on whether there may be an issue or if HSBC are just being fussy would be welcome!

sheramber

Does he still have the Lloyds account?

Can he apply for a Lloyds student account as an existing customer?

xylophone

My 18 year old son has been declined for an HSBC student account citing his credit history as a reason

Do many 18 year olds have a credit history? I notice it is mentioned below and a check on Experian suggested but you have done this...

https://www.savethestudent.org/money/student-banking/student-bank-accounts.html

I wonder whether it would be worth your while making an appointment at your local branch just to check what is going on?

shopaholicnumber1

He does have a Lloyds account which he can upgrade if all else fails - the benefits for a uni student aren't as good as with HSBC though. Seems ridiculous that an 18 year old faces barriers to getting a credit history - we all started somewhere!

xylophone

Just saw this

https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/students/student-bank-account/

As a student, it's likely there'll be very little data on you, which makes credit checking very difficult. Sadly this can leave some students rejected due to ridiculous anomalies, and there may be no rhyme, reason or solution to this. Read the Build Your Credit History and the main Credit Scoring guides for more info.

shopaholicnumber1

Thank you :-)

Zero_Sum

Although it was over 20 years ago, my student account was with HSBC (well Midland for the 1st year or 2) and I had zero credit history. I was on the electoral roll however & lived in same house for the previous 12 years. So maybe moving house & not being on electoral roll may have something to do with it.

colsten

xylophone wrote: »

I wonder whether it would be worth your while making an appointment at your local branch just to check what is going on?

As the son is an adult, it would be him who has to go to the bank. The parent could go along with him, at his request.3

shopaholicnumber1

I'm sure he'll be happy for me to go with him and sort it out! I was more concerned that we can't seem to access anything on the CRA's. I'll give the electoral register a little longer to update and then check again. In the meantime, we'll speak to HSBC and see what the problem is. If worst comes to worst he can upgrade his existing Lloyds account which isn't a disaster and we can look at it again in a few months time.

shopaholicnumber1

Update - my son has applied to Santander and they've approved him straight away! He did all this while I am at work so haven't been involved at all, but it's a decent account and he's happy so that's great :-)

deadendwaterfall

shopaholicnumber1 wrote: »

Update - my son has applied to Santander and they've approved him straight away! He did all this while I am at work so haven't been involved at all, but it's a decent account and he's happy so that's great :-)

Glad to read of a successful outcome in some form or another. :T

(It's too often the case that there is never a follow-up outcome or if there is, it's the OP admitting defeat in their bad situation they are complaining about).