Can you open multiple student bank accounts?

[Theworried2]

DS is going to Uni and is tempted to open these accounts at different banks as they offer perks such as £100 cash. Is this allowed and has anyone got experience of doing so?

No you can't because for most you need to deposit your main source of student income into it (loan or parental finance I assume). I found this info online.

@ApolloandDaphne Thanks for that. I was looking at Lloyds which said you need to deposit £500 and NatWest is just £100 deposit so I thought it seems possible.

No, because apart from Santander, you generally need to agree to have your SF paid into it.
Santander I believe want £500 a term paying in.
So of course you could, but it would be a bit grabby and unpleasant.

Look at their terms and conditions. My son has just opened one with Halifax that gives him £100 as long as he deposits £500 by October 31st which he’s already done. He’s looking into others now. You can only have one student account with Halifax so I’m thinking other banks will be the same meaning he might sign up for a few.

@WhenIWasAFieldMyself Yes he is looking at the ones that don’t require whole SF like Lloyds and NatWest. But why would it be grabby and unpleasant?

That’s hysterical!! Grabby and unpleasant? They’re banks! They’ll be wanting students custom. Offering £100 is chicken feed. The student is likely to stay with them forever, taking out loans and mortgages etc. They’ll more than get that £100 back. Opening a few isn’t a bad idea as the student can assess first hand how each bank treats them and works. The issue could be managing them and not getting into a tangle.

Absolutely LOLing at the idea that using the perks offered by a bank might be grabby!

I don’t know about student accounts, but with standard current accounts it’s perfectly normal to have a couple with direct debits going between them so that each has the request amount of income per month to get the benefits.

The Ts and Cs will usually say it must be your only student bank account so if you were found out they could close your account with no notice. That would be difficult admin wise to deal with but unsure if it leaves any kind of black mark on your records that could impact you in the future. I wouldn’t take the chance personally

I imagine the answer is, you can have as many student bank accounts as you want as long as you abide by their terms and conditions.

I know my son had an account with Nationwide (which he now uses for work) and another with HSBC (although he only ever put £1 in and is still getting regular statements for).

You can get away with it but it's a bad idea to do so because that student overdraft is oh so tempting and having 7 student overdrafts maxed out by the end of your degree is a bad place to start your graduate life.

I think I found that you could open more than one, but you only got the reward after it had been open x months and you’d deposited your student loans.

check the t&c’s.

They need your status code from ucas when opening one so I dont know if they can track that you have more than one that way.

Ahhh. I got a Mike and the Mechanics cassette when I opened my student bank account!

Yeah that's right.
C'mon people, stop being grabby and unpleasant to retail banks.

Genuine lol 😂😂😂😂😂

Do you also shoplift from shops because you can?

Lord knows what morals you're sending your kids to university with.

Anyway, look forward to hearing about your PFB's not being able to get a decent credit score in future because you encouraged them to scam a bank out of £100.

@WhenIWasAFieldMyself

No, I don't steal from shops - but I do buy more than I need on promotional items and store them in the utility room to avoid buying them at full price next week.
And I'll check offers and ruthlessly switch supermarkets for a better deal.
And I sometimes use an M&S bag for life in sainsburys...
I know, I'm going to hell aren't I 😂😂

Again, so much lol
It clearly states in the advice it's not illegal.
Picked one account at random...
Where are the rules being broken exactly??

What about all the people who are opening new bank accounts every couple of months to get the switching bonus of £100+? There are threads of them in MSE who regularly open an account, meet the terms and conditions and pocket the cash and then open another and switch to that. They perfectly legitimately have earned thousands over the years.

To me this is no difference. As long as you meet the terms and conditions then it’s all fair game. These banks offer bonuses to attract custom. They absolutely know some people will be playing (legitimately) the system and not hanging around or using their accounts….it’s the price they pay to attract thousands of clients…some of whom will stay for decades and be very lucrative.

Why wouldn’t anyone be advising their DC to look at all the accounts and the terms and possibly to consider getting several chunks of free cash or other items? Yes, only sensible if the won’t run up big overdrafts or possibly close some of them within a few months.

As a student (many years ago!) I had more than one student bank account. The banks are often keen to encourage students as they hope they will continue with them when they graduate. As long as you follow the terms and conditions I can not see the problem.

DD wants to try this too. And even more grabby and unpleasant, she wants to take full advantage of the 0% overdraft on offer and use it to invest a few thousand in a savings account. Those poor banks who have been nothing but kind to us.

@maypoll good for her! Is she investing in stocks and shares? My only issue there is it wouldn’t be invested for very long and she could make a loss. The Chase current account (not student, just normal) offers 4.3% on the instant access saving account so even if she put her ‘overdraft’ in there she’d make a bit of cash. Not huge amounts but…

Having more than one student account is a right of passage.

And they keep you as a customer. My brother was the king of the chancers as a student and had several accounts all with max overdrafts. He now uses the main two banks for his business / personal accounts.

As he is a successful professional with a thriving business I think the "free" overdraft has probably been reclaimed in spades.

Also heard about this! I think I read somewhere that the Banks communicate and are aware if you have a student account elsewhere. Then they may let you open it but you won't get the bonus. Could you DC open and close? Any thoughts?

“Grabby and unpleasant” wat a gimp