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Francesca Haselden

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Review of the Barclays, Student Additions Account:

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A fine account, but not much leeway when helping out students with overdrafts

All other student accounts I've had have been fab for allowing a healthy overdraft to help me get through tough times while studying. Most students don't have the extra money lying around for things like housing deposits so a student overdraft is a must for many. The Barclays student account seems great and they offer lots of interesting little extras like personalised debit cards and insurance packs. But when it comes down to the overdraft they are just difficult to deal with. I requested one and was told no, because I had bounced a payment a few months prior. I know there is fair lending in place but it still seemed unfair! I ended up begging them and explaining I needed the cash for a house deposit and they finally allowed me to have it. I've since gone on to purchase other Barclays products and will likely stay with the bank for a long time but I'm still pretty miffed they treated me like I was stupid or overly spendy when I really needed it most. Not a good way to treat customers who could become long-term future customers with mortgages, well paying jobs, et cetera. Reviewed on: 10th August 2015

Review of the Santander, 123 Current Account (discontinued):

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Easy to switch, and free money for no effort - totally worth it!

My partner and I use a joint account to handle all our big bills. That's everything from phone lines, rent, water, council tax and all other utilities you can think of. We were with another bank, but we spotted the Santander 123 account and its great cashback offers. The account offers 3% back on all communications bills (that's Sky, phone, internet et cetera), and more cashback on bills like mortgage repayments, electricity and council tax. It seemed like a no brainer, the account would give us free money! What more could we want? We were already paying out these bills so it made sense. But, we were still with our other bank and the logistics of moving all those direct debits and standing orders over to the new account seemed like too much to bear. But with the new switching service in place, it was as easy as signing a form and posting it back to them. With that, all of the switching was handled between our old bank and Santander. We didn't have to do a thing. We had no hiccups in our bills, it was perfect! Since we've had the account we've earnt nearly £20 in cashback, just in three months, and all for bills we have had for yonks. I feel annoyed that I didn't do this sooner! Reviewed on: 10th August 2015

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