Switching banks advice

richie2837

Hello everyone,

We find ourselves in a position where we are very dissatisfied with our bank, who we have been with for nearly 40 years, and are considering switching account providers.

Our son has a student account with the same bank as us, but we recently learned his student account had been switched to a graduate account a year ago, one year too early. We are complaining, but they have 8 weeks to respond. In the meantime, he is being charged daily interest on his overdraft and is incredibly stressed. He is autistic and has ADHD and doesn't manage daily "admin" at all, hence we are only discovering a year later that his account has been incorrectly switched.

He finished his undergrad this summer and wants to return for his masters, but is now afraid he won't be able to afford continuing study due to this bank error.

While we are waiting and waiting to get any response from the bank, we are thinking that their error and frankly rubbish support in trying to get answers has soured us, so are thinking about changing banks, but we need one for our (my wife and I) account, and our sons student account (as well as paying off his current overdraft).

We would appreciate any suggestions.

elsien

Any of the ones that are giving a switching bonus at the moment?
Also, whether having a branch in your town that you can visit is important to you/your son or not, because that could  narrow down on your options quite a lot. 

Other than that, standard bank account, Cashback current account, packaged account etc? 

And it’s not necessary for your son’s bank account to be at the same one as you, if that gives you any wider options. 

eskbanker

richie2837 said:

Our son has a student account with the same bank as us, but we recently learned his student account had been switched to a graduate account a year ago, one year too early. We are complaining, but they have 8 weeks to respond. In the meantime, he is being charged daily interest on his overdraft and is incredibly stressed. 

[...]

He finished his undergrad this summer and wants to return for his masters, but is now afraid he won't be able to afford continuing study due to this bank error.

[...]

our sons student account (as well as paying off his current overdraft).

Just to be clear, is your son overdrawn specifically because of the interest applied incorrectly, or if they waived that would he still be in the red?  It's likely to be easier to switch if not having to arrange an overdraft immediately on opening a new account elsewhere, but have a look at:

https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/students/graduate-bank-accounts/

richie2837

Hi, no a branch nearby is not necessary. To be honest the bank branch in our town is worse than useless anyway, so we do everything online.

Son is overdrawn anyway due to cost of being a student, but interest causing it to grow. 

Rob5342

I always suggest Monzo or Starling, they are nice modern banks with lots of useful budgeting features. Switching is a trivial task these days, so just switch again if you don't like the new bank.