Bank Accounts for those going away!

[taximom]

Just want to share our experience which may help others.

 

DD at the age of 18 (and looking more like 14!) was studying in London. Her bank allowed her account to be hacked, through their website, and her student loan, dance scholarship, savings, everything was stolen amounting to about £3500. The bank were highly unhelpful, ignored the person in front of them and it took 3 months for them to give her her money back after we had numerous conversations and emails with them. The Ombudsman only offered £50 compensation. The main problem was that she had no other account with any other bank so we were unable to get any money to her as the bank had frozen her account. She had to borrow money to get her home so we could go in person to a building society to deactivate a children's dormant account.

The moral of this story is to have 2 accounts with 2 different banks so that you always have money available or a means to get money to your offspring.

Good luck to all going on in September, never forget your dream however hard it becomes and enjoy the experience.

 

Heather

Aka Taximom

[Pas de Quatre]

You make a very good point there Taximom.  Earlier this year the computer system of a major group of banks went down (twice) and many people couldn't access their accounts.  As adults DH and I have always made sure that we have joint accounts with different banks who are not part of the same group - that way you can get to funds.  It can be very frustrating anyway when you log on to do some internet banking and find the site is down for maintenance.