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Question about student bank accounts

This is just for my own curiosity but I was wondering whether anyone knew the reason why most banks require you to have lived in the UK for 3 years to open a student bank account?

Reply 1

martin7

Original post by sylveon777

This is just for my own curiosity but I was wondering whether anyone knew the reason why most banks require you to have lived in the UK for 3 years to open a student bank account?

I suspect it's connected with why banks offer student accounts in the first place -- banks know that people in general don't change their main bank account. So what they're banking on (if you'll pardon the pun) is that the costs of providing the perks that come with a student account will be more than recovered by the money they'll make from you in the future.

Where the three years comes in is a way of the banks identifying that you're probably a permanent/long-term resident in the UK, rather than being here to complete secondary education and then a degree after which you're then likely to leave the UK. If you're going to leave the UK, then the banks won't make the money back.