New Student Accounts 2005/2006

overseas_2

Has anyone any advice for best account for a European student (UK nationality but normally resident in France) needing to open a UK account as a student? Tha banks don't offer the freebies, and it seems impossible to open a Smile account or similar internet one that would pay a decent rate of interest? Thanks for any help or advice. P.S I'm not interested in the overdraft offers!

muddyfox470

I think Lloyds TSB will be the only major bank that will open a bank account for a foreign student with the least hassle.

Ian

PS. I don't know what account it will be, but I doubt it will be a 'student account'

PPS. (just reread your post) If you are of UK nationality; then that means you can open any account so long as you have all the relevant documents. Natwest always seems to be consistently good (thats who i am with) and you should also get a free railcard which may come in handy for you.

As for decent rate of interest that is going to be hard for any major current account (for a student). Best thing to do is to open up a current account and then take out an online saver with that bank (normally pay around 4%) and then you can stuff your money in the online saver earning interest, and when you need to use the money just transfer it over and it goes in immediately ready to spend!

roger5

Hello Everyone


My Girlfriend will be starting medical school in Spetember...

She will be a student for the next five years. This is her second degree and will be going as a full time mature student.

Can anyone reccommend a student account for this amount of time?

Is there a bank that tailors especially for medical students or this lenght of study and the increased amount of cost incurred.

Yours Hopefully.....

Voyager2002

Martin, please correct the errors in your article.

You indicated that several of the student bank accounts are available to overseas students. However, when my wife (Chinese) applied at HBOS she was declined: they later explained that they will only offer an account with credit facilities to someone who has lived in the UK for at least two years.

She then applied to Smile, and received a message back saying that she had been accepted. However, the same message said that she had to provide proof of British citizenship in order to open the account! They later said that what they really meant was that she had to be legally resident here, but by that stage she had lost interest and was of course thorougly p***ed off. Then to NatWest, who were ridiculously bureaucratic but did eventually open an account for her. It was only when she checked with head office that she found that the account was not the student account for which she had applied, but one that did not have any freebies (STEP account). They later clarified that they do not offer student accounts to international students.

hotbod

anything on basic accounts for 16 year old claim EMA ?
can not recieve EMA without opening an account

muddyfox470

Try the Natwest CardPlus, you should be able to open that up very easily.

I am with Natwest and have had no major problems over the few years I have been with them.

For 16 year olds you will get a solo card that you can also use abroad and online. Very useful

Ian

overseas_2

Hi
Thanks for replying - only just got back to check replies! Problem is even with Uk nationality banks seem to require proof of residence. had very similar problems to Voyager 2002 - kept waiting by SMILE for two months or so and then refused because no proof of residency. NatWest offered a STEP account. It really is very frustrating - time something was done for foreign students!