Student accounts for EU students?

Czacha

Anybody could give me a hint which UK bank provides student accounts also for students coming from the EU? I will come to UK to start my 3 year undergraduate course in October and would like to arrange for the account well in advance. So far when browsing web pages I was always getting to the point that one has to be a UK resident in order to get one...

melancholly

HSBC seems to be one of the few banks that does this. you won't be able to organise it until you officially start the course over here though, and i think you need various letters from the university stating the duration of your stay. once you are in the UK, get to a branch and ask them there - often this kind of information is much easier to get from a university branch where they have dealt with it many times, rather than a main city branch where they've never done it before!

Czacha

Thanks very much for that one I'll check with the College which branch they're familiar to.

firegalley246

One more bit of info that you might want to know: I'm not sure about all banks but some will not give international students an overdraft for their student account. This is the case with my flatmate.

Voyager2002

Try asking your bank at home whether they can open an account for you in the UK.

LindaS

To get the HSBC student account, you need a HSBC account in your home country already (I was denied one on account of them not operating in Norway).

Generally, you won't be able to get a "student account" with the same offers as for British people. I, being Norwegian, was denied an account with HSBC and Abbey before trying NatWest. NatWest was able to offer me a no-overdraft, solo-card only, no-cheque book, no interest "basic" account. The offers they have in the branches saying "free RailCard, High-Street vouchers etc etc) are not applicable to international students (even if you pay home fees or whatever).