A weird-fax! (Halifax)

Member Name: SimonFinnigan

Product:	Halifax
Date:	14/01/04 (272 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: They make it easy to repay

Disadvantages: They don`t like the word student!

I got myself a loan from the Halifax when I graduated from doing my first degree. Partly to pay off my overdraft, and partly to buy myself a nice new computer. I went into the branch, made an appointment, and then hit a major stumbling block.

When the staff member I was dealing with asked me what I did, I told them that I was a student. At this point she point blank refused to consider giving me a loan. No matter that I was a post-graduate student being paid very well for doing my degree, the word student was enough to turn them against me. I spoke to her, and the manager, and they both told me that there was no way to Halifax could give me a loan. I went home, went on the website and applied online myself, and was surprised when, despite telling it that I was a student, it happily gave me the full loan I was asking for. I had to go into the branch to fill in the forms, and told the woman what had happened - she was surprised, but since the computer systems had let the loan go through, she saw no reason to do anything apart from let me fill the forms in.

I filled in the forms, which took a grand total of 5 minutes. Since I`d filled in all my information online, I just had to wait for her to print the forms out, check the details and then decide how I wanted to get the money, and how I wanted to repay it back to them. I asked for the money to be paid directly into my current account (also held with the Halifax), and asked them to take the repayments out of the same account.

If it hadn`t been for the small problem with being a student, I would strongly reccomend the Halifax. The interest rate was reasonable, the staff where helpful as always, but I didn`t appreciate being messed about because I was "just" a student. I appreciate that a lot of students are annoying credit risks who have no idea how to handle their money, but I`ve been with the Halifax for about 15 years now, and have never had a problem with them before no
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If you are a student, don`t bother applying for a loan, stick with your own bank. If you`re not a student, then give the Halifax some serious consideration!

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