Kings Student Money Mentors

Which bank accounts are best for students?

It can be hard as a student to know where to put your money – there are so many options! But don’t worry, I have put together the key types of accounts and points to consider when you open a bank account to make the process easier.

Student current accounts

It is always a good idea to use a student’s current account for your immediate spending money as these offer generous overdrafts for hard times and often come with benefits specifically for students. These can include rail cards (my personal favourite), free cash when joining or cashback when you spend in shops. Pick the perks that suit you the most – a bigger 0% overdraft if you tend to overspend at the end of the month or a Tastecard for those who love to eat out!

Savings accounts

These are good accounts if you have a reliable amount to spare each month which you don’t necessarily need to access for a while. Often, they come linked to your current account so consider this when you pick a bank. You have to put a certain amount into the account each month in return for interest. Savings accounts which let you take money out at any time will have lower interest rates than those that hold your money for a fixed term so consider your saving goals. You won’t necessarily gain a lot of money from these accounts, but they are a reliable way to make a little extra income.

ISAs

ISAs are great accounts for saving money for the longer term. You gain interest with no taxation (although this generally wouldn’t affect students) and have a limit of putting £20,000 per year into any ISAs you own. They also come as a fixed term or easy access, again with lower rates on the easy access accounts. I like to use different fixed-term ISAs based on when I think I need to access the money. If I won’t need to use that money for 2 years, then I maximize my interest with a 2-year fixed ISA! Some ISAs have specific terms, for example, the Lifetime ISA is used to save up for your first house or pension. Other ISAs invest in stocks and shares, which may give better rewards but could also lose money depending on the investment performance.

Premium bonds

Another popular place to put ‘spare’ cash is in NS&I’s premium bonds. It works by buying ‘bonds’ for £1 each which are entered into a prize draw every month. Prizes range from £25 to £1 million but the average premium bonds user could expect an interest rate of 1.4% currently. Of course, the more bonds you have the higher the chances of you winning but there is a maximum of £50,000 worth of bonds per person at any time. It is not the most reliable method of making money but offers the chance to enter a lottery every month without spending anything. I’m still hoping to get that million!

Other current accounts

Whilst student accounts are a good choice, you can also open other current accounts at the same time. These can be good for other reasons – interest rates, fee-free overseas spending, cashback at certain places, and better online banking. It is also worth considering any switch offers, i.e., perks you get for switching to their bank account. I picked an account which allowed me to use my card abroad while I went on my summer exchange programme and got a £100 voucher for switching to the account!

With any bank account, consider whether it meets your needs: easy access to cash to spend day to day, good interest rates for saving up for big goals in the future or no-fee spending abroad if you are an international student or love to travel. Check whether you need to put a certain amount of money in the account each month to receive the interest or other benefits. And lastly, review your bank accounts every so often so you can choose the best deals which align with your money goals – I like to do this every year at least.

I like to use which.com and moneysavingexpert to find the latest information on bank accounts as they summarise all the information I need about each account type into one page. I hope this can help you get started with picking the best bank accounts for you!

Rebecca Lam
King’s Student Money Mentor
Part of Money & Housing Advice

The King’s Student Money Mentors blog shares our students’ personal experiences and thoughts on money-related topics. Any reference, opinions or recommendations on a particular company/brand are only the views of the student(s) who wrote the blog post. King’s College London, the Money & Housing Advice service and the Money Mentor project do not share the views in the blogs nor endorse any of the companies mentioned. Readers should conduct their own research before using any companies mentioned in our blog posts.

Savvy Spending!

Living in London can be very expensive, so it is quite important to know how to be a savvy spender. I’m going to share some of my tips and advice on spending consciously, including mindful spending, zero spend days and different methods I’ve noticed companies use to trap customers. Hopefully, after reading this blog post, you will feel a lot more confident when thinking about your finances and will come to realise that spending and budgeting isn’t as daunting as you might think!

A savvy spender is someone who spends their money wisely. Rather than just sticking to their budget by avoiding spending on anything else, a savvy spender will make sure that what they do spend money on is worth it and is the best deal. It’s always a good idea to implement some savvy spending habits into your lifestyle because it allows you to truly make the most of your money. A savvy spender won’t get caught out by sneaky marketing tricks designed to make us spend more. Instead, they’ll be switched on to make sure there’s no wasted spend, meaning the money they have can go further.

To be a savvy spender, you need to make sure everything you purchase is a conscious decision. When you’re acting consciously, you’re able to stop and ask yourself a few questions before you buy, which will make sure you’re a) not buying something you don’t really want or need or b) spending too much money when you could get the same thing for less. In today’s day and age, we are inundated with deals, offers and cleverly curated shops/online stores that are all designed to make us shop emotionally rather than consciously. The key to being a savvy spender is to understand that and be wise to their tricks.

Mindful spending is not allowing emotions to lead your spending decisions. Taking the time to consider whether you want or need something can add up to hundreds of pounds in savings. Telling yourself ‘No’ when it comes to purchases isn’t boring or tedious, it’s powerful. It isn’t about cutting out all of your spend either. By being mindful about your spending, you can decide what’s important to you. If you enjoy your morning coffee from your local coffee shop, we’re not saying don’t buy it. But by asking yourself ‘Do I need this? Maybe if I woke up 5 minutes earlier, I could make and bring my own’. You’ll start to find that you’ll cut out some unnecessary spending.

Zero spend days are a challenge to not spend anything for one day. Imagine this, you’ve done your food shop for the week, but you’re tempted for a takeaway after a long day. If you commit to not spending on that day, you might just fight off the urge to splurge on a takeaway. It sounds simple but it’s an effective way to take a step back and appreciate the things that you’ve already paid for and save money. Once you get into the habit of maybe one no-spend-day a week, you’ll realise how easy and rewarding it is. Then you can take it as far as you like. People do no spend weeks, months and sometimes even a whole year where they just spend on essentials. Maybe that could be you but set milestones that work for you.

There are a variety of different ways brands use scarcity marketing to rush you into a purchase. Some examples include:

Counting down how many hours and minutes you have left to get next day delivery

Alerting you when stocks are low or showing how many of an item are left in stock
Holiday sites telling you how many people ‘favourite’ a hotel
Flash sales and time-limited offers
Limited edition collectibles

There are lots of ways that supermarkets try to maximise your spend in-store. Look out for these examples on your next trip:

Essential items: Think bread, milk, eggs – these are often stocked further away from the entrance and apart from each other so you need to walk through more of the store to get there and hopefully pick up items you didn’t come in for along the way.
Expensive items: The most profitable or most expensive items often sit in the middle of the shelf directly in your line of sight and popular combinations will be stocked together to encourage you to buy both.
Impulse buys: One you may already know – tills are littered with small purchases to encourage ‘essential’ last minute purchases.
End aisles: We might be used to seeing cheaper deals at the end of aisles but its important to make sure you’re actually bagging yourself a bargain and haven’t just been conditioned to think you will. People are 30% more likely to buy items at the end of an aisle than in the middle!
Sensory overload: Shops use sight, smell, sound and taste against you in a bid to get you to part with your cash. Smells like freshly baked bread can trigger hunger, causing you to pick up more than you came in for and free samples can encourage a purchase you hadn’t intended. slow music can be used to slow you down and encourage more time in store.

When you’re shopping in store, I would recommend making a shopping list and having a clear budget in mind – and avoid shopping when hungry!

The same goes for online sites, which have their own ways to encourage spending. Sites will offer free shipping if you spend a certain amount, encouraging you to keep shopping and buy more. Amazon Prime and ASOS Premier delivery can be a great way to save on shipping costs, but these products are designed to keep you shopping more often and can sometimes work out to be more expensive than other places. So always shop around and be careful they don’t end up costing more in the long run. It’s common practice now for sites to offer savings on your first order if you subscribe to their email list. There’s no harm in saving yourself some cash using these in the short term but beware – your inbox will soon fill up with deals and sales which can be hard to say no to. These emails are a double-edged sword. They could save you money if you see a sale or discount code for an item you were already going to buy but they can encourage more spending too. It could be worth unsubscribing when you’ve made your saving to avoid falling into the trap.

I hope by lifting the curtain on some of these tips and tricks, you’ll feel empowered enough to make informed decisions about your spending – good luck!

Amani Parvaiz
King’s Student Money Mentor
Part of Money & Housing Advice

Part-time jobs, side hustles and the gig economy

Hi again KCL! This week, I’ll be focusing on ways to maximise your income – specifically, I’ll share with you the secrets of part-time jobs and ‘side-hustles’, and the ‘gig economy’.

Part-time jobs can be a great way to add to your CV, build your skill-set and confidence, and of course, earn some money to pay for your textbooks (or your next night out!). While part-time jobs can be a huge help when living in a city as expensive as London, I’d say it’s vital that you balance the time you spend working with the rest of your schedule, as holding down a job, doing a full-time degree course, and balancing other commitments can really easily lead to things like burnout and a feeling of being overwhelmed, so make sure you’re taking care of yourself! (If you’re an international student, I’d also advise you to contact KCL’s Visa & International Student Advice to see how many hours you’re allowed to work per week).

I myself have had a few part-time jobs at university, including an auditor, and of course, the fantastic role of being a Money Mentor (which is currently accepting applications if you’re interested), but there are tons of other student jobs up for grabs, with some of the most popular ones being a student ambassador, food delivery driver, student union worker, bartender etc. – if you’re looking for a job here at KCL, then the King’s Talent Bank is a great place to look for jobs that might appeal to you.

Side-hustles are similar, but technically are jobs that you do on the side of your main job. About 60% of students have reported having a side-hustle in the UK, and they can be a great way to not only earn money, but to do so creatively. There’s a lot of overlap with part-time jobs, but I’d argue that a side-hustle is less ‘full-on’ and intense. Some examples of great side-hustles can be paid proofreading of documents and other work, selling videos/pictures online via places like Getty Images, pet-sitting/dog-walking, and selling fashion items such as trainers. Side-hustles are also a great way to show some creativity on your CV, so if you have the time and a good idea for one, give them some consideration.

The gig economy is the name we give to the part of the labour market that depends on temporary/part-time positions filled by independent contractors or freelancers (self-employed people who do jobs for several different organisations instead of just staying at one). There are benefits and drawbacks to the gig economy. On the plus side, these kinds of jobs often give the workers a lot of flexibility, so can be great for students like us.

But on the down side, they can be unstable and have barely any job security, so I’d advise you to think carefully about whether this is the kind of lifestyle that suits you, and it’s also worth a discussion with King’s Careers and Employability, to see what sort of career you would like to have in the future.

Good luck!!

Shivam Chotai
King’s Student Money Mentor
Part of Money & Housing Advice