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Student Finance Tips
Student Bank Accounts
See: Student Bank Accounts
Budgeting
See: Student Budgeting
Using your Overdraft
Remember the bank may describe your overdraft as free but you still have to pay it back so use it carefully. Generally, you will be allowed £1000 in the first year, £1250 in the second year and £1500 in the third year. This does not mean you will be allowed £3750 in total... OHHHH no.
Try dividing up your loan/overdraft:
- Open a student bank account with a free overdraft
- Open one or two savings accounts, I've gone for one where you can move money whenever you want and one where you have to wait a minimum number of days or get charged
- Plan budget for year
- Move all money from student account - go into your interest free overdraft (leave some room for manouvre obviously)
- Move 1/2 into highest interest account with minimum wait before transferring money
- Move other half into lower interst savings account
- Set up details of when money should be moved from highest interest account to current account ie at start of each term
- Move money between more flexible accounts as and when needed, say 70 quid a week if thats what you have to spend after rent paid, thus its easy to keep track of how much you are spending
This way, you can earn a little interest on it, and you won't reach the last 3 weeks of term having spent it all, maxed out your overdraft and living on super noodles and bread And its essentially free money and can add up to a fair bit.
Just be careful you keep track of everything and keep a reasonable error margin so that if the unexpected happens you don't have to go over the overdraft limit.
Employment
Job opportunities in term time can be few and far between but there are other ways of making money including surveys done by the uinversity. Often there can be 10 quid for turning up to be prodded and questioned. There are often emails from your faculty about this kind of thing.
You may be able to work at Uni balls or events - this is a great way of getting into events for free.
Other Hints and Tips
- Take advantage of any offers you may see e.g. Open a bank account and receive either £50 or a Railcard (Railcard everytime, very useful for saving money when you go to see friends or visit back home.)
- Make sure you have insurance (either a separate policy of included on your parents home insurance)
- Always use a Young Persons Railcard and book tickets well in advance. This means that even long distance fares are next to nothing. Good deals are also to be had for first class - if you're interested in the superior comfort afforded by it. 10 days before travel is normally enough. If you want to go first without paying for a first class ticket you can have a meal in the dining car and take most of the trip to eat it!
- Also, buy an Oyster card if you are studying in London, and find out what discounts students can get on local buses.
- Find websites that give stuff away for free, yes, it sounds crazy, but some websites really do give stuff away free.
- Get swap savvy. Swap sites are the latest thing and are perfect for students.
- Don't get your TV license until the beginning of October. Then you can claim back for the quarter of the year that you're not at university (July/August/September). When you get your TV licence it automatically backdates it to the beginning of the month - so if you buy it on the 30th September it starts from the 1st September!!
- Keep a money jar (though not somewhere obvious!) and you will find that it soon adds up. You may feel like a prize idiot when you're the person holding up the queue at the supermarket because you're paying all in 5p's, but it saves a lot of money in the end.
- Try to do most of your shopping at the same place and get a loyalty card (money off shopping, cinema tickets and stuff).
- Search hard for shops, which will give discounts to uni students and NUS card holders.
- Sainsburys and Tescos both have basics range which are very cheap - baked beans etcetera, some of the stuff is aboslutely horrible (bread/meat) but a lot of the time its difficult to tell the difference ie baked beans, some cereals. Remember to reuse plastic bags to save the planet though. Note: The market in my experience actually has fruit and veg at a similar or even cheaper price to the supermarkets and is often a lot nicer.
- Learn to cook: ditch ready meals/pre-pepared salards etc, a kilogram of pasta is something ridiculous like 25p at sainsburys, small amounts of time needed to cook but nutritious and cheaper. Lots of cheap student cook books out there for inspiration
- Try and buy your textbooks second hand. Either off students from last year or there are some websites which focus on this (Studybookshop - http://www.studybookshop.com or Academic Book Trade - http://www.academicbooktrade.co.uk). This can save you so much money over three or four years.
If you get into trouble
- Let your bank know as soon as possible. They may be able to help.
- If you are in severe financial difficulty you can apply for Access Funds and hardship loans. Check with your University for more details.
- You can get free confidential professional money advice from the National Debtline on 0808 808 4000 or from the Consumer Credit Counselling Service on 0800 138 1111.
See Also
