Nationwide
Kicking off our list is Nationwide’s FlexStudent account, that starts you off with a whopping £1000 arranged overdraft with 0% interest a year – not bad right? But if you’re a bit of a social butterfly and a £1k overdraft doesn’t sound like quite enough to sustain your quest to become your campus’ biggest BNOC, then in second year you can request an increase to £2,000 and in third year an increase to £3,000.
Now, what other benefits do you get in addition the overdraft? Nationwide offer completely fee-free transactions when using your card abroad, so if you’re the sort of person that fancies dipping into that 0% interest overdraft for a quick weekend end away (to pretend like exams don’t exist) then this may just be the bank for you.
Take a look here:
HSBC Student Bank Account
With an overall ranking of 4.28 out of 5, HSBC’s Student Bank Account is one that you do not want to miss out on. As all good things do (washed out jeans, Justin Bieber to name a few) the HSBC overdraft gets better with time - starting with a £1,000 overdraft in year 1 that could rise to £3k by year 3. Oh, and I nearly forgot to mention those overdrafts are interest free as well!
HSBC also have fantastic online and mobile banking systems that will send you notifications in real time. In addition to this, you’ll also receive exclusive (yep, exclusive) offers as part of HSBC ‘home&Away’, saving you the pounds on anything from dinning to travel to shopping. I’ve just had a quick look and for example, joining HSBC will secure you 15% of Bamboo Sapa Hotel – so (as long as you’ve done your lectures for the week), you could relax with mojito in hand for a bargain price.
1|2|3 Student Current Account
Santander’s overdraft game quite isn’t as strong as Nationwide or HSBC, but they still offer £1,500 interest free in 1st to 3rd year, rising to £1,800 in year 4 and a cool £2,000 if you’re on a 5 year course.
However, Santander really comes into its own when looking at the additional benefits. You’ll bag a 4 year 16-25 railcard when opening a student bank with Santander, saving you 1/3 on rail travel in Great Britain – so no need to hide in the toilets anymore when you see the ticket collector coming!
When you shop with your Santander card, you can also claim up to 15% cashback with selected retailers, meaning you can afford to store your precious goods with Kit Keeper for even longer (it’s a win win if you ask me!)
There’s more info here:
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