Student and graduate overdraft

Will monzo be able to offer me a similar arranged overdraft to my UK bank student/graduate accounts. It’s the only thing stopping me and probably many other from ditching their main current account for good!

Well I doubt they’ll give you a 0% overdraft.

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Monzo already stated somewhere (can’t remember when and I am happy to be corrected) that they cannot currently compete with the 0% overdrafts of the big banks student accounts because these provide an intentional loss for those banks in the short term in the vain attempt you will never move banks after you graduate so they can push other products at you in the future. Future Monzo might do something.

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They also encourage students to live outside their means which might make sense if a degree lasted 1 year but it doesn’t… it’s 3+ years! So as buffer it’s potentially useful but IMO if a student needs a serious buffer this is probably the wrong way to go about it

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Same here. I love the instant statements, the ease of use abroad with the card etc but the only thing stopping me from ditching my RBS account is the overdraft. It’s not there for me to just be using constantly but with no regular income it’s a safety net aspect that I really appreciate. 50p a day would soon add up for a lot of students who might have to wait a long time for their next student finance injection etc.

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Would be great to get student loans for people studying to help them out a little!

So how much do you think students will be prepared to pay for their overdraft?

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It isn’t worth Monzo going into the student market right now. It has been mentioned a lot of times. Most high street banks run student accounts at such a loss in hope that when you graduate you just don’t bother to move your account from them.

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Isn’t a student loan (from the Student Loans Company) designed for this?

Or are you talking about non university students?

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Can confirm my bank (danske bank) in northern ireland here gave me a student overdraft of £3000 at 0% interest and dont have to have it repaid until my 27th birthday. Ludicrous to be honest

If Monzo gave those to students free it would be totally unfair to those working and struggling to get by on national minimum wage if Monzo expected them to pay for theirs.

Every Monzo customer should pay the same, student or not.

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I think a student offering may happen in time but the economics certainly aren’t there on the :monzo: side yet to allow that to happen any time soon.

Even then, funding source will be key. Paying for the losses of a student account from marketplace profits (once that’s off the ground) is something I could accept but while overdrafts are the only real source of income I could never (personally) condone what would effectively be the charging of someone to cover the debts of someone else. (Others may have different views)

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As a student I think many fee-free student overdrafts really are designed to trap you in a massive overdraft you have to take years to repay- a lot of people spend their overdrafts or loans like they have been given free money instead of looking at it as a debt or a loan. At 18 I don’t know if everyone can spend £2000+ responsibly…? Especially at uni?

I think at the moment Monzo wouldn’t be able to offer this while they’re still looking to cut costs and draw even, but I think as they have pledged to be a responsible lender I don’t think I can see them ever offering a huge free overdraft. The potential for exploitation is too high.

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hey Bethany, thanks for sharing this idea :raised_hands: a few users have had a chat about student overdrafts before so I’ve moved your post here, to keep all of the discussion in one place. I hope that’s ok!

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