Santander bank student account 2012/2013: We want your feedback

A question about : Santander bank student account 2012/2013: We want your feedback

Hi all,

In our newly published Student Accounts 2012/13 guide the Santander Student Account is in our top picks.

They offer a guaranteed 0% overdraft of Ј1,500 in all three years.

We're after feedback from people who have applied this year and want to know your experience and if you had any trouble getting the overdraft.

Thanks for all help in advance

Best answers:

• I'm going to apply for this. I'm going into my second year and never opened a student account the first year as i don't use overdrafts at all. The fact they offer Ј50 for free will be a great bonus so it's worth opening for me.
• i'm torn between the santander and co-op, help !!!
• I have just had a very disappointing visit to my son's Santander branch trying to open a student account.
  Because he is an existing customer, having had a 16 - 18 years account for two years, they said he is not eligible for the Ј50!!!
  Even if he had closed his account today, he would not be eligible for the Ј50 until 3 months had elapsed.
  There is a possibility of closing the account tomorrow, then waiting until after 22nd November and getting the Ј50 then (the last date to open an account is 30th November) but quite honestly with everything else that will be going on it's the last option.
  So much for looking after loyal customers! I'm appalled. What a contrast to Natwest who are giving EXISTING customers only Ј100 towards a railcard.
• I've been with Santander for over 5 years now with a host of savings accounts, current accounts and now a student account. Yes I agree with the previous comment about existing customers not getting the Ј50 which is not clearly explained, but after checking is online in the 'small print'. However, they offer existing customers a better deal - they provide insurance for a laptop, mobile phone and 2 gadgets for the whole time you have a student account ( 4 years for me).
  I had already researched insurance (by chance) before I went in, and it would cost me around Ј120/year for that insurance, and that was only whist the items were in my room and not across the whole of the UK! It pays to go in and talk to someone, and look round other banks too and take other banks leaflets in when you go to talk to someone - then they know they are competing for your business. The second best option for me was probably HSBC as they offered me a 1750 overdraft in the 1st year, followed by the Co-Op with Ј1400 increasing to Ј2000
  The santander overdraft is Ј1500 (or thats what I have got) for year 1-3, increasing to Ј2000 in year 4. With saving Ј120 a year this was by far the best option for me, but make sure you get the best deal for what you need - if a big overdraft is better, pop into HSBC, ask them to start to open the account to run the credit check and give an overdraft figure and compare with the Co-Op.
  I have never had a problem with Santander through the whole time I have been with them, my worst banking experience was with Halifax.
  Hope this helps
  Michael
• Collectively we have 5 accounts with Santander - our expectations and needs are very basic. My daughter went in to Santander in Glasgow City Centre this afternoon in order to transfer her current account to a student account and had a disappointing experience - despite being with them for over 2 years she was advised that she was not entitled to the Ј50 (New Customers Only!!) and that the company had stopped the free insurance incentive ages ago - additionally that "it never covered IPhones because they were the most likely to be dropped into a drink!?"
  Overall she felt spoken down to, unsupported, unappreciated and frustrated by the confusion surrounding their account incentives.
  However, she got to keep her existing account details (upgraded to student) & had Ј1500 overdraft facility available immediately. I appreciate this would be a satifactory outcome for some - depends
  what your priority is I guess?
• My daughter is having real problems with upgrading her Santander current account to a Student account. Although the upgrade has gone through at the branch, they told her they need to go through an appeal process before they can apply the overdraft facility (this is due to it being upgraded and not a new account).
  She went into the branch to upgrade on 17th August and despite repeated calls or visits they still haven't applied her overdraft facility and keep saying it's because of the upgrade.
  Has anyone else been experiencing the same issue? I've now raised a formal complaint as even the branch manager can't give me a valid reason why this is taking such a long time.
• I hate the fact that my student account is with Santander. I rarely speak to someone who knows what they are doing on the telephone banking and always get referred to a branch. I also do not like how they up the overdraft limit at the end of each year without notifying me or asking me if I want the overdraft limit increased. I have had a lot of problems with them charging me when I have knocked myself Ј10 or Ј20 over my agreed limit - I get the balance back up as soon as I realise what I have done but then Santander charge me and knock me back into the unarranged overdraft. They always refund though once I have had a nice long stern voiced rant at them.
  I will say however, I went in last week to advise them that I am retaking a year and need to extended the period for which I will have the account for a further year, and they set it back two years which was nice of them. You also don't have to pay a minimum amount in to keep the 0% according to the person I saw in my branch.
  Have cut my card up though and put a lock on my online banking - effectively rendering my account useless. Now paying off the overdraft Ј50 a month so that I can get rid!
• Seems like my experience is a one off reading others comments after my own, it seems so strange how different branches of the same banks seem to have different conditions and ways of opening the same account. Bottom line is just try to be upfront with the bank, clearly say what you expect and if they cant offer it take your business somewhere else, or decide the hassle is worth the benefits!
• I enquired about the Santander student account at my local branch on behalf of my 18 year old son, about to start uni. I explained he already had a different santander account and asked if he would still get the Ј50 if he switched to the student account. Two members of staff agreed he would, but when he went along to open the account, he was told he didn't qualify because he already had a Santander account! After this, I made the same enquiry at another Santander branch and was again told that having an existing Santander account would not prevent this Ј50 bonus being paid. It seems very misleading to me.
• My son went in to open a student account today. Was told that the Ј50 is no longer available (it is advertised on-line) and his account application was rejected by the computer! Head office later said that the offer WAS still on - the branch told my son that 'loads of people had been disappointed it had ended too!) Branch didnt know why his application was rejected - he has no debts and a number of savings accounts and a young persons account with another bank and suggested that he get an experian credit report!! They said they will contact him in a couple of days if they have successfully appealed on his behalf with the people who approve the accounts! If this is typical of their service I think we will forget the Ј50!
• So far so good with Santander, I applied first with the Co-op 3 weeks later i had no reply so phoned and told them to close that account being in need of a student account and already being with Santander i decided to go into a branch and talk to an adviser to see if i could get my existing current account changed into a student one, the guy told me just to fill out a new application so that i get the Ј50 but he would make sure the account would be added to my existing ones therefore getting around the existing customer problem. I checked me accounts today and my student account is already set up after 3 days which is nice to see and gives me some comfort knowing that i have an account for uni now. All i'm waiting for now is the overdraft to be increased to it's full amount, I deposited the Ј500 yesterday so hoping that the overdraft will be increased very shortly but so far so good with Santander much better than the co-op in my experience.
• My daughter opened a student account application over 2 weeks ago, sent id
  after 7 days and still no answer. Does it normally take so long for approval and set up of these accounts ?
• Really disappointed I was already a Santander customer so thought it would be best to stick with them and get an extra Ј50. But because existing customers have to upgrade their accounts as oppose to open one we don't get the Ј50! Could of really done with the extra cash as a fresher, and I haven't noticed on the adverts new customers only so very disappointing. I've emailed Santander but not expecting much from the response.
• I have wasted a morning trying to open an student ac with Santander. After completing most of the online application i couldn't select the relevant year for opening my current account with another bank. For some reason Santander will only let you select up to 2007 ( I opened mine in 2010 and previous bank accounts have now been closed down) there appeared to be no way of getting round this so I phoned their customer helpline (which is actually a technical helpline that transfers you to customer services). The customer services guy was as helpful as he could be be he couldn't understand why I couldn't select the relevant date either. He suggested I visit my local branch which I did. The girl behind the counter said as long as I had my acceptance letter and it stated the length of my course there would be no problem. That 'no problem' lasted for about a minute until the next lady spoke to said I needed a UCAS number. I dont have one of these as I applied directly through the university. She wasn't happy about this and went off to make several phone calls. On her return she told me that because my course was a post graduate course I couldn't have a student ac whether i had an UCAS no or not. When I told her that's not what it said on their website she just shrugged her shoulders. This was my first contact with a Santander bank and I'm not impressed. They do offer a separate PG a/c but they didn't mention that in the branch - More fool them.
• I have been trying to open a Student Account with Santander on behalf of my daughter and obtain the "automatic" Ј250 overdraft for weeks now. First, Santander took weeks to acknowledge receipt of her course confirmation and ID documents and then wanted copies of further identification documents. Account was opened then when she enquired about overdraft, she was told she had to go into branch to set this up as it is a "Student Account", although the Welcome Pack she received stated that the Ј250 overdraft was automatic and there is an allowance up to Ј1,500 when additional funds are paid in. I personally have my mortgage and loads of other accounts with Santander and am very angry about their blatant lies in the promotional material and have complained about this appalling customer service and my daughter has now asked to close the account. Annoying because she is off to uni on Saturday and I started the process weeks ago so the overdraft would be ready for when she went but this is now not going to happen.
• I have also had a really bad experience with Santander. I already had a current account with them, and went into my local branch 3 weeks ago to change it to a student account. This was apparently done there and then and I was told my overdraft would increase once Ј500 had gone into my account. This happened and my overdraft didn't increase, my account hadn't even been changed to a student account.
  This was done for me, and I was told again Ј500 would have to go into my account for the overdraft to increase. Again this didn't happen, and it took numerous phonecalls and a visit to my branch to be told apparently once Ј500 has been paid in to the account it triggers the increase to the overdraft, but can take up to 2 weeks. This was a week ago and still no change. If it hasn't occurred by the end of next week I will be opening a new student account and closing my Santander account.
  Every single person I have spoken to about this has had a different answer, I'm not convinced they know their you know whats from their elbows!