Has Halifax broken its student promise?

I'm a fourth year student (six year course) and opened up a Halifax bank account in October last year. Since then I've been making regular £200.00 payments per week into the account (and pay around £800.00 pounds per month back out of it into my hsbc current account).

As I finished my last exam yesterday and had some time on my hands I called Halifax today (see saynoto0870.com for landline). I explained the end of the year was approaching and my final loan instalment had been rec'd and I wanted to increase my overdraft to £3000.00 to tie me over for the summer. I was told it was not at all possible to increase my overdraft for reasons unknown to the operator. She spoke to her manager who called the underwriters who said the criteria were:
(1) no adverse credit rating (I have none)
(2) regular payment into account (see above)
(3) length of time the account has been open (I.e as opposed to year of study)

She told me in no uncertain terms that If I called again in another six months once the account had been open for a year I would be entitled to increase my overdraft again (she would not disclose the amount).

Three issues
The first is that on the first time of asking I wasn't entitled to increase my overdraft at all - this was done at the discretion of the "manager" from £1000 to £1750.

The second is that while others have suggested Halifax place limits based on year of study this has not been the case for me. Rather, the length of time I have had the account for. This is not consistent with the customer in the article who had held a Halifax account for 12 years.

Finally, the girl on the phone seemed nice but was genuinely clueless and it seemed, powerless too. Every major company I ring the initial operator has a redundant function.

I'm coming to the end of my 2nd year in Medschool and have been with Halifax for two years now. I also have a term time job in which i'm contracted to work 60 hours month, earning about £500 a month. So, I have regular student loan payments plus monthy earnings going into my account. I do have a credit card which is just under 1000 in debt, but I have no outstanding payments, have an ok credit rating and regular payments going in. Despite this, everytime I ask for an increase in my overdraft I'm turned down. I will need the overdraft because I will have to quit my job for the clinical years. I currently have a £1000 overdraft limit.

I've been given three different reasons on three different occasions:
1. "You need to have the account open with us for more than a year" - ok fair enough, loyalty etc...(although it doesn't say that it terms and conditions)
2. Try again 6 months later "You need to have more money in your account" - seems slightly counter intuitive...the reason I wanted an increase at this time was because I was struggling - so I thought, fine, I'll wait until I have at least 1000 +.
3. Try again 6 months later: "The credit crunch has hit us all hard and so our critera for increasing overdrafts has become much stricter" - Halifax actually can't afford to give me an overdraft! To soften the blow they decided to offer me a credit card and insurance!

I have previously been offered credit cards, personal loans and insurance from Halifax. Slightly irresponsible of Halifax?

It is incredibly difficult to get a overdraft larger than £1000 from halifax and I would not advise anyone to join this bank based on their attractive overdraft facilities. They are no different to any other bank in this respect. If you do get it (post credit crunch that is) then you're very lucky!