best student account

ruxton28 · 30 June 2005 at 7:34AM

Last year this was Natwest. When is an update coming from Martin please?
My daughter is going to uni this Sept We plan to dump her existing RBS account, go for Natwest student account for the railcard offer, use the overdraft facillity to the max and keep bulk of cash in her existing Intelligent high interest savings account. Good idea?

surfcat · 30 June 2005 at 9:21AM

here's a thought, why don't you let her go down the town and pick the best student account she can find? When she goes to uni she may be having sex, will be offered drugs, staying out late, drinking too much, and not eating properly. If she can't be trusted to pick out a bank account how will she manage with big life-changing decisions? (RANT OVER)

I found HSBC to be very good as they also have a 4year young-persons railcard, which, if her uni is a fair way from home, will save her an awful lot of money over 4 years. I saved hundreds.

Remember to leave a bit of a buffer on the overdraft in case there are cheques/annual direct debits that are forgotten about, taking her over the limit.

funkymonkey · 30 June 2005 at 10:23AM

i think it would be good to have another list this year as im going to uni in sept and will be wanting the best account. but the banks run promotions nearer the time i think you will have to wait till aughust before you start looking!

MSE_Martin · 30 June 2005 at 10:55AM

Graduate accounts is this mondays new article - student accounts is a fortnight away

Eliza252 · 30 June 2005 at 1:26PM

Hello,
I had a student account with Barclays (now a graduate account with a fat overdraft - so am going to be chained to them for a bit longer!)
- I had mixed feelings about them. They claim to have a 'student advisory team' but good luck trying to contact them! They were quite helpful when it came to giving me a bit of leeway when I accidently went over my overdraft limit a couple of times - i.e they didnt charge me when I went in and cryed/begged (before the days of MSE you understand!).
The forms you had to fill in to get your overdraft extended were highly irritating and excessively long (tantamount to you trying to work out how much you spend on toothpaste in a year etc etc) which is fine accept the staff were very blase about the whole matter - they basically just told me to make my outgoings look bigger than my income and that was that. Not entirely sure if that was a good thing - because frankly I could have done with a bit more constructive advise.
Oh yes, and DO NOT accept a student barclaycard (or any other credit card for that matter) - the interest was (and still is?) extortionate. I was hugely naive on the credit card front when I started uni (despite the fact I had been living by myself for a year before hand) and got taken for a song on that account!
ps. also do not be swayed by freebies when you join, they are there to reel you in. Having said that I heared alot of good things about the HSBC account and you cant beat a four year railcard :rolleyes: . As martin says however, an article is coming up! (now I'm off to read the graduate account one to see how badly Barclays are screwing me over!

)

mrsjacksparrow · 1 July 2005 at 12:12PM

NatWest told me that the student railcard offer is only available from one bank each year, and this year (as last year) they have it. The HSBC website says their incentive thingy this year is an mp3 player or 10 CDs of your choice.

We_Laugh_Indoors · 1 July 2005 at 12:16PM

i had a halifax student account.

it was rubbish and i left them the second i graduated.

RaihanT · 2 July 2005 at 11:39AM

Hi Martin, in the student article, could you possibly include some suggestions about which ISA account I could use if I had some spare money left over from my student loan. Also, is it a good idea to take the interest free overdraft amount from my account and put that in an ISA as well (does it effect my credit rating at all?)

Thanks

surfcat · 2 July 2005 at 12:22PM

Hi Raihan,

I'm not Martin but you're overdraft idea is (based on certain provisos) a good idea:

- make sure you leave some buffer (£100, £200?) so as to stop you going over your overdraft limit and incurring charges. (It's easy to forget about annual direct debits, and some student sports clubs etc can be very slow at cashing cheques, so all of a sudden an extra 50 quid can disappear)
- Maybe leave it a term or a year before you invest the overdraft, until you know how much money you have coming in and how much you will need.
- You might actually need the overdraft for its intended purpose, to spend!
- Remember that once in an ISA, if you take the money out again (to repay the overdraft?) then it can't be re-invested.

SC

muddyfox470 · 2 July 2005 at 1:30PM

I went to my branch to enquire about this offer at natwest, and they said that they don't accept conditional offers as proof of going to uni, even if you have a confirmation of your loan request with the relevant account number and everything.

Especially as another member of staff said that a conditional offer would be fine. But this is bizarre as the majority of students will only have a conditional offer, so i don't see how that will work.

But i will give them a call on their freephone number to enquire about this as it did make me relatively happy.

Also this topic was noted prviously, so using existing threads would be much more efficient and waste less space on the forums! http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=65030

I have seen the consistency of Natwests account, and well i even have their offer leaflet from last year - i am that sad

Cheers Anyway

Ill wait to read Martin's article, although there was something similar in the guardian (on saturday) or the observer, and it mentioned all the accounts but LTSB and Barclays have yet to finalise their offers yet...

Ian

Chadsman · 2 July 2005 at 7:01PM

I would imagine with a conditional offer a bank would be happy to offer a basic no-frills account which they would then upgrade once you offer has been confirmed.

best student account

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