Q:

Banking meaning of "held"

While filling in a UK form I just encountered the following question:

How many credit cards held?

This was followed by a free-form text field. So they are either asking

‘how many credit cards have you ever held in your hands in total,’
‘how many credit cards have you held in your hands at most at any one time,’ or
‘how many credit cards have you currently got registered in your own name.’

Judging by the context it's obviously the third.
Next question:

Current account held? [ ] Yes [ ] No

What? My first thought was that there was a plural "s" missing, and they're really asking how many accounts I have like in the last question, or else the account number of my current account, but they want a binary answer. So are they asking

‘do you have an account at all,’
‘is your account in some nebulous "held" state,’
‘is the account you're currently using registered in somebody else's name (applicable to minors or dependants),’ or
something completely different?

A:

Q1: How many (active) credit cards are currently held in your name?
  Answer: an integer  
Q2: Do you have (what in UK banking terminology is known as) a current account?
  Answer Yes/No

The type of account known in the UK as a current account, is known (if I recall correctly) as a checking account in the USA. It is an account on which you can issue cheques (US spelling: checks). As far as I know, it is also the only type of personal UK bank account on which you can go overdrawn, i.e. with the account in debit rather than in credit.
I'm not surprised at these questions on a UK housing application form. The first question would be in order to help them assess your credit worthiness.
The second question would be related to whether you have an active UK bank account (other than a savings account), and might also be to do with how you will pay for your housing. I would expect that they would want you to pay by direct debit, whereby they are authorised to take the monthly/weekly rental payment directly from your bank current account: they debit your account directly, hence the name "direct debit". Direct debits cannot normally be taken from other types of UK bank account.

