High Street Banking

Advantages: It's paid employment
Disadvantages: It can be quite high pressure sales orientated

...first started working for a high street bank in 1985, when I was a very young and very innocent 16 years old (everyone say aah!) Back then it was one of the best jobs I could have hoped to have landed. Though the job was supposed to be 9 - 5, opening hours back then were 10 - 3, so there were many occasions when I was home not long after 4 PM. The workday itself was nice and relaxed with many an opportunity for a quick game of ping-pong across ...
...'the customer is king' campaigns). High St banking is now almost completely (as are most other occupations I have to admit) sales orientated. Staff are given numerous targets to attain and regularly put under some pressure to achieve them. (My husband knows a number of staff that have been signed off work suffering from stress). Now, I appreciate that there will be some people out there who don't see the sales part as a problem (it's just not the ... Read review

Advantages: Save money
Disadvantages: Takes a bit of effort!

...with whoever happens to be within staggering distance of the union bar. And remember: it is not just the high street banks that can give you this service, as internet banks (such as Smile) and building societies (such as Yorkshire Building Society) have also introduced special student accounts. An excellent comparison engine can be found at: www.moneysupermarket.com/, that allows you to see summaries of many student accounts, including interest rates, telephone and internet banking availability and overdraft details. Go for one that offers you the best in terms of interest rates (you can get much better deals that the derisory 0.1% that some current accounts still pay out), charges (different banks organise and charge in very different ways for crimes such as going overdrawn) and size of free overdraft. Availability of internet banking is also... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average very helpful

Advantages: interest free money only rises with inflation, hardship top up if desperate
Disadvantages: LEA assess amount so may not get much eg if living at home in comparison to living away

...with an overdraft. Get a good account with a good bank - find out all the conditions and services provided from each account provided by each high street bank. I am not going to go on about this because when you get to university you are going to be BOMBARDED by banks and their reps who will have stalls, give-aways, goody-bags etc. to shower you with in order to get your favour. Do NOT sign anything until you know all you need to know. Otherwise you might think that the Halifax student account is good, and not mind that they want £400 every 3 months to be put into your account. That's fine when you think about the student loan going in, but seriously other banks do not put such silly conditions on your account! Look around! I would advise going for the ones who can give you the highest interest free overdraft, and it would be more in your favour... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful

Advantages: Prompt payment, no hassle report submission, plenty of work.
Disadvantages: Not many mystery shopping assignments available, average pay rates.

...This company offers lots of paid per telephone survey work, (hundreds of calls are available at any one time & you can decide how many to do) but I didn't find many actual mystery shopping jobs on it. The handful I have completed for them were for a major supermarket and a high street bank. I had to provide an in depth review for them and received £10, by the time I entered my results into the website I'd say it worked out at just above minimum wage. The last telephone interviews I conducted for them was paid at £2.50 per survey - sounds good but u have to ask about 100 questions, the person you're interviewing doesn't care and sometimes won't do the survey at all... not for me I'm afraid! (Although if it sounds good to you - the upside to this company is that they pay when they say they will and there's always plenty of surveys... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful