If you’re heading to university in September, or you have children who are, then it's worth weighing up the student bank accounts on offer.
Student bank accounts tend to offer interest-free overdrafts, and many come with extra perks like railcards, dining cards and cash as incentives to sign up.
Here, Which? takes a closer look at the perks on offer right now to see if they’re really worth it, and give our top tips for choosing the right student bank account for you.
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Student bank account perks compared
In the table below, we’ve rounded up banks' current student offer and listed them alphabetically.
We’ve only listed student accounts that come with perks. To see the full range of student bank accounts, visit our best student bank accounts guide.
| Bank account provider | Overdraft limit | Perks on offer | What the perk is worth |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bank of Scotland | Year 1-3: £1,500 | Free three-year Totum card | £24.99 |
| Barclays Bank | Year 1: £500 Year 2: £1,000 Year 3: £1,500 | Free access to Perlego for 12 months | £96 |
| HSBC | Year 1: £1,000 Year 2: £2,000 Year 3: £3,000 | £100 cash for opening account | £100 |
| Lloyds Bank | Year 1-3: £1,500 | Free three-year Totum card (which also includes a Tastecard) | £24.99 + £159.96 (Tastecard is worth £39.99 a year) |
| Nationwide BS | Year 1: £1,000 Year 2: £2,000 Year 3: £3,000 | £100 cash for opening account | £100 |
| NatWest | Year 1-3: £2,000 | £80 cash and a four-year Tastecard | £80 + £159.96 (Tastecard is worth £39.99 a year) |
| Royal Bank of Scotland | Year 1-3: £2,000 | £80 cash and a four-year Tastecard | £80 + £159.96 (Tastecard is worth £39.99 a year) |
*Prices of memberships correct as of 17 August 2022.
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How do the student bank account offers work?
Here we explain what the perks are and how you may be able to get them cheaper.
16-25 railcard
Santander is offering a free railcard for four years, which gets you a third off travel for on and off-peak trains.
The card usually costs £30 for a year, or £70 for three years, and you can easily make the money back in just a couple of more expensive train journeys. For example, we found an open return from London to Edinburgh on 10 September on sale for £144, but with a railcard the same journey cost £95 - a saving of £49.
Getting the railcard for free potentially saves a lot of money if you need to take trains a lot. But you might also be able to save on the cost of a railcard elsewhere. For example, right now you can buy a railcard through the Trainline website (TheTrainline.com) from £20 for a year - a saving of £10. If you collect Tesco Clubcard points, you can also buy a one-year railcard if you have £10 of Tesco Clubcard points.
Our verdict: A railcard is a good freebie and if you don’t get one with your bank account, it’s worth paying for separately if you’re going to be using trains a lot.
- Find out more: how to find cheap train tickets
Tastecard
A Tastecard is a dining loyalty scheme, where you can find deals like 2 for 1 at participating restaurants, up to 50% off pizza delivery and up to 40% off at the cinema. The card is being offered for free by NatWest and Royal Bank of Scotland.
You can potentially save a lot of money with these discounts, but dining out may not be top of your priorities if you’re a student and struggling to live off your student loan.
The card currently costs £39.99 for a yearly membership, however there are often free trials running - at the moment, you can get a 60-day free trial.
Gourmet Society, which is very similar to a Tastecard, also has a 60-day free trial, so if you were to trial both schemes back-to-back, you could get four months free.
Our verdict: As Tastecard is a nice perk, but some restaurants and takeaways will offer their own student discounts, so it's still possible to save money without one.
- Find out more:how to save money on eating out
Totum card
This is the new name for the NUS extra card, and opens the door to more than 350 UK discounts on big and small brands, and also acts as a proof-of-age ID. A free three-year card is being offered by Lloyds and Bank of Scotland
If you were to buy a Totum card yourself, you can choose between several options. A one-year Totum digital membership is free (but has fewer discounts), while the classic student card costs £14.99 for a year, or £24.99 for three years. Totum recently announced any student with a paid membership card will also get a Tastecard for free - including eligible Lloyds student account customers.
Our verdict: As there are other ways to get student discounts for free, such as using Student Beans and Unidays, or the free version of Totum, this card is not essential. However, it can be a handy proof of ID if you don't have a driving license and don't want to take your passport out with you and could be worth it if you're keen get a Tastecard.
- Find out more: how to get the best student discounts and deals
Perlego
Perlego is a digital online library which offers academic textbooks, and non-fiction e-books and is a subscription service.
It usually costs £12 a month or £96 for the year, but you can also get a seven-day free trial. Barclays is offering 12-month access with its student account.
However, you might want to consider whether your university has a library you can use, and it may also subscribe to other journals which do a similar job.
Our verdict: This could be a useful perk, but your university may offer similar access for free.
- Find out more: 11 ways to save money on your subscriptions
Cash
This perk doesn’t need much explaining - a few banks will give you up to £100 if you open up an account with them, but it’s important to check the small print.
NatWest and the Royal Bank of Scotland are offering £80, and Nationwide Building Society and HSBC are offering £100.
Consider whether or not you're likely to spend this money sensibly - you could spend it on perks you may be missing out on, such as a railcard, or it could easily be frittered away on a couple of nights out.
Our verdict: Cash is a good perk, but think carefully on what you spend it on.
- Find out more: complete guide to student loans
Are there any conditions?
Most of the banks require you to spend or deposit a certain amount to be eligible for the perks and overdraft on offer.
For example, Nationwide and Santander require you to pay in £500 by December, and if you opt for HSBC's account you'll need to make at least five payments within 30 days of opening.
You may also have to open the account before a certain date to qualify for the perks.
To find out more about eligibility, visit our best student bank account guide.
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What else should you consider?
Don't pick an account based on perks alone. They can be a great bonus, but they won't suit everyone, and most of them can be purchased separately anyway.
Here are the top things to consider before you opt for a student bank account:
Will you get a free overdraft?
Having a free overdraft may come in handy during your studies, as maintenance loans may not cover all of your expenses.
The most generous overdraft limit is £3,000, offered by Nationwide and HSBC - but you’ll only get this in the third year of your course, and will start off with a smaller amount.
Bear in mind that you may not be offered the maximum overdraft limit, as most banks will assess your eligibility on an individual basis based on your credit score.
A student overdraft is not free money – it’s a loan that you'll need to pay back, ideally before the interest kicks in. Typically, current account providers start charging interest on student overdrafts two years after you graduate.
- Find out more: how to clear your student overdraft debt
How does its customer service compare?
Your current account is likely to be the service you'll use most often, so it's important to know your provider will help sort things out if anything were to go wrong.
Every year, we survey thousands of current account customers and ask them to rate the service they receive, which we turn into a Which? Customer Score.
We also analyse the accounts to get a product score to find the Which? Recommended Providers (WRPs) - the banks and building societies that offer great products and top-notch customer service.
Nationwide is a WRP this year, with an excellent customer score of 75% and a product score of 75%.
We’ve listed the product and customer scores of every student account in our best student bank account guide.
- Find out more:best and worst banks
Could a challenger bank help?
Just because you’re a student, it doesn’t mean you have to have a student bank account.
Challenger banks such as Chase, Starling and Monzo don’t have specific student accounts, but they have good budgeting tools - which are ideal for students.
However, these accounts don’t have free overdrafts so you need to consider if this is something you really need and will use.
Most of these challenger banks have apps which give you instant notifications when you spend and can organise your spending by category, such as food, bills, entertainment and travel.
Monzo and Starling also offer no fees for overseas spending which is handy if you fancy travelling in the summer.
- Find out more: challenger banks explained
Tuition fees and student discounts
If you're heading to university, we’ve got plenty of information on how student finance works - find out about tuition fees in England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, plus how to get the best student discount and deals.
If you’re in your final year, or have just graduated, you might want to find out more about graduate bank accounts.
- Find out more:complete guide to student loans and tuition fees
