We recently announced that 16 & 17 year olds can now open Monzo accounts! And it’s got us thinking…
Personally, I got my first bank account when I was 16 because I was receiving the Educational Maintenance Allowance and needed somewhere for it to go. And I picked my bank based on the fact they offered a young person’s rail card 
But how about you? When did you open your first bank account, and why?
Old enough to have a TSB Passbook and them Natwest Pigs
I had a piggy bank account about age 7.
I think my first bank account under my name was around age 10/11 when the bank of Scotland used to come to school once a week to let us deposit and withdraw money using out passbooks!
Gosh,
I had a young savers account from Halifax but I can’t remember from what age. I was probably very young 5 or 6 maybe? It came with a paying in book & a coin bank. My family always encouraged me to save my money.
I think I got my first card back when I was 12 and it would have been a Halifax Expresscash or Cardcash card. I remember it being Visa Electron.
Think l was 7 and it was the Little Xtra Club from the Halifax. Got so much free stuff on opening!!!
I had a Halifax passbook from really young, then around 13/14 I got a LiveCash card from HSBC. I think I still have it somewhere…
Also had a TSB Jeans Scheme account which a denim like coating on the Passbook. Thought it was so cool.
The free gifts on saving goals was great on that account.
That’s amazing!
I think mine was aged 16 - Lloyd’s TSB (because that’s where I did work experience in year 10).
I may have had one before, but I didn’t use it.
With most kids having smartphones from the age of 12, I’d have had a Monzo account if they offered one!
Midland Bank had a scheme for schools were pupils ran the branch taking deposits and withdrawals. I remember being one of those pupil cashiers. Branch was open twice a week at lunchtimes. I seem to recall for big withdrawals had to be requested and one of the teachers had to go the local Midland branch to get the money.
Believe I got one on or just after my 16th birthday with Nationwide, had it ever since mainly out of just not needing much more out of my bank.
When I was a kid in the 80s TSB (pre-Lloyds) used to come to our primary school and let you drop in your pocket money, and it was recorded in a little notebook. Totally forgot about that account for years then when I was around 16 I reopened it (and got to spend the £4-ish I’d saved years before). I’d had another in the meantime with Bank of Scotland but never really liked them much, no idea why. So technically when I was about 5, but didn’t really use it until I was 16.
I just replied about TSB doing the same for me in the Highlands!
Yeah, TSB for me at about 7 or 8. Little blue passbook. I think I saved £2.87 by the time I left middle school.
I had an account with goHenry (back when they were still called PktMny) as a kid (14 y/o?) and then moved onto a Nationwide current account at around 16 y/o.
Have had a Halifax ISA since birth… but the first account I opened myself, I must have been 5 or 6. Always encouraged to save and having an account made it more likely.
I would have been about 7. I had an account with The Midland Bank. Not only did you get a passbook but a chrome plated money box that had separate slots for different coins.
Little blue passbook with the Post Office at about 7 in which I paid the proceeds of my savings stamp books once completed.
First bank account was at 16 with NatWest so my employer could pay my wages directly into my account. Stayed with them for about 20 years!
Think it was First Trust bank when I was 16 for wages
Had an account with Yorkshire Bank in about Year8/9 I think. Was going to pay in my paper round money but I always spent it on toffees before I could do it.
I’ve not changed much.
I had a Nationwide savings account in my teens, it was a passbook, which I could use in some of the more advanced cash machines with a PIN number.
First current account I applied for when I was 16+1 day, apparently doing the application on the 16th birthday could sometimes cause issues with the application. That was my Nationwide cash card account.
Then my first current account was again with Nationwide. Supposedly it wasn’t possible to upgrade the cash card account to have a debit card, overdraft and cheque book, so it was a new account, and again it was the day after my 18th birthday due to the issue of computers supposedly not supporting applications on your birthday in all cases.
I still have the debit card current account. The cash card account I ended up switching over to another bank when the cashback on bills plus switching bonuses became a thing.
I currently have err 4 current accounts. Yeah don’t understand why people think you can only have one, but that is another discussion.