Student HSBC user (hsbc.co.uk)

Member Name: coldpenguin

Product:	hsbc.co.uk
Date:	15/09/01 (198 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Fast, Cheap, reliable/friendly

Disadvantages: no free beer

I started being a student 4 years ago, and decided to join the HSBC (then Midland). As a joiner they gave me the option of £50 or a four year Student railcard. I decided on the railcard, and have saved well over £400 using it in the past four years (it saves you a third off rail prices, so if you are a student, I recomend that you get a railcard at £18 it makes getting to london a lot cheaper). When tha account started the overdraft was not as much as other banks were offering, only £750 but every year they increased the amount automatically by £250. When I did need to increase my overdraft they did it without quible, a quick 5 minute chat with a woman behind a desk (it wasn't even my home branch) and my overdraft was increased. Oh, sorry, it was a free overdraft, I did not pay any interest for the four years (and now I am a graduate user, is still free for a couple of years), and the one time I went over my overdraft, they were understanding and didn't even charge me for that! With the account I also got a free visa card and free mastercard which comes in useful when buying items over the internet. As with normal credit cards, the interest is only calculated on unpaid amounts, and the cards are still free at the moment. When my cards started mis-behaving (too much work (too many lectures) ) they sent new cards to my temporary address which meant my cards were delivered to me a lot quicker than if they had been sent home first.
I strongly recomend HSBC if you are becoming a student. Although I have not had the requirement to take out personal loans from them I think that if they are administered in the same fashion as their student accounts then it would be a good experience.
Internet banking was free to set up, and works very fast. The only downside was you get a 20 digit code and you can't (you can but you arn't meant to!) paste into the website.
From the internet banking site I can do whatever I want to admnister my account, even do
wnload my statements in an MS Excel compatible format.
Gareth

Summary: