Bank accounts
Comments from students...
Be careful you stay street legal. Read the small print when opening your account.
“I’ve got two student accounts and no one told me that wasn’t allowed, so I didn’t think I was doing anything wrong. I wanted the Railcard, so I put £50 in then took it straight back out - and I didn’t ever use it again.”
Of course you can have two bank accounts, just not student ones:
“I’ve got two bank accounts but I don’t want a student account, because I don’t want the temptation of having an overdraft. I think that’s where a lot of students go wrong. You see this overdraft and think ‘oh my god - that’s £1500 to spend’. Whereas I haven’t got that, so I’m not tempted. I have got a £300 one just in case, but I don’t want the temptation of spending it. So I’ve got 2 bank accounts: my normal one, and another one which is a student account that I don’t actually use, but my rent goes out of there. So, when I get my loan I split it in half and half goes in the rent, whilst half goes in the other one. The reason I’ve got the rent in the student one is because the way the loan comes in and the way my rent goes out means that it does have to go into the student overdraft to pay back out again. Does that make sense?”
Erm…I think so. But be careful with the double account thing because…
“I thought I was being quite clever. I opened two accounts: one for my loan and one with savings. Because I ran out of money, I ended up spending out of that account and when it came to pay for my room I didn’t have enough money and I got shouted at a bit. But it was alright in the end. They gave me a couple of months to sort it out and get some money back, but it wasn’t a very clever thing to do.”
Note from the TAG Team: Don’t forget you can ring accommodation if you’re struggling with your rent for halls and the very nice ladies there will help you. They’re not shouty really. Most landlords might be ok too – if you get in touch as soon as there’s a problem.
