Banks were giving money???

Mostly everyone would research on which bank was convenient for money transactions etc. Especially for transactions from overseas. At that time, Malaysia only had Standard Chartered which you could do money transfer into the students overseas accounts. And even that, with not so many banks, a few least to say.
When the term starts, every banks in town would offer students with their best "gifts" so that the student will open an account with them.
The first bank I saw was Lloyds bank, it had a nice horse logo and lovely green and white color, I went in to open an account with them. (I did not do further research on banks at that time, I guess I was still "clueless"). Anyway, Lloyds bank was giving ₤500 overdraft for 1st year students, ₤750 for 2nd year and ₤1000 for final year. At this point I thought, wow! ₤500 given! How nice...and you get on the spot approval of Visa Credit card with ₤500 Credit limit(I don't even remember if I checked the interest rates!)


Anyway, after putting my money into LLoyds, I then realised, there are MANY other banks which was offering even better! Midlands was giving ₤750(!) for first year and so on.. But at this point, it was too late to open another account, as all the system is on line, so they can use my passport number and see that Ive already received an overdraft with Lloyds. Though, I could still open a savings account with Midlands if I wanted too, but why would I, right? (You can only receive an overdraft from one bank, at that time, if i remember correctly)
Anyway, ₤500 pounds was enough for me (I saw it as "free" money at that point, obviously we have to pay it back, with interest after 3 years. But it was interest free the whole 3 years that you are st dying)- Aren't the banks very nice over there? :)

Anyway, i signed up with other different banks for the "student" credit cards, just to get the inflatable chair, a water bottle and one bank gave a bag pack.... So anyway, with my inflatable chair, bag pack and water bottle, I got into more debt in the first year one could ever imagined. Luckily it was easy to get a part time job over there.... :)