When I was 13 (not a life story, honest!), the Midland Bank (then) people turned up at school and offered us all a free pack of 'goodies' if we started a bank account. So I, along with most of the year, went along, filled in a form, scribbled our most flatulently swirly signature and disappeared off to the playground to try the new ball and bag out. Needless to say I am still a customer. I haven't had any problems, aside from putting a silly signature on that first form so now when I want to do something official I need a few pieces of ID because I can't do that signature any more.

One thing I have noticed is that they have a regular schedule of playing around with the names and types of young persons accounts. For example, I joined with a Livecash account. That changed to a 16-19 account. Now I think its something else, or maybe I have to ask them to change it to a student account, or something. I got a little confused as I am not over 19 so having changed it once, they must have changed it again. I have been using the HSBC account as my main account, and I thought myself very important and grown-up when going into the bank to put in or (more often) take out some money. Then I got a Natwest account. They treat people differently. Actually that's not a reflection on HSBC as Barclays are the same but Natwest seem to have the 'customer service' idea right, whereby you are serving the customer as an important person.

So I wouldn't advise you to steer clear of HSBC, its just that there are better banks out there. Personally, I'm a Natwest person until I have enough to get a Co-op Smile ISA...

Happy saving. Yes, you do need to save. You didn't look at that last statement, did you...