Every year we review all the student accounts available in Ireland and give our opinion on which one is the best. We look at loans, overdrafts, credit cards, features and the freebies that banks use to sign up students.
College is an exciting time in anyone’s life. Of course, there is a natural predilection for boosting your social life, but there is so much more to consider. Accommodation, for one, is going to be an awful headache, especially these days. Learning to cook, clean, share responsibilities, learning to live with strangers. it’s all a lot to take in.
So the last thing you want to do is put a couple of hours into researching the best current account options. But don’t worry, because we did it for you, so let’s get to it! But first.
Before we get into it
Lots of businesses love freshers – and they’re happy to give out freebies galore because they know that if they get students interested now, they could keep them as customers well after they finish college.
This is especially true when it comes to banks because they know that most students who sign up now will become customers for life! This is no understatement – despite the fact that the switching process is relatively straightforward, the percentage of customers who switch current accounts remains incredibly low at less than 0.10% a year.
Banks also know that graduates are very profitable customers indeed because they earn more, pay fees, and eventually take out mortgages and loans.
Consequently, the banks send hordes of reps with clipboards to the gates of campuses across the country at this time of year with the mission to sign up students using any means necessary. They’ll offer you all manner of incentives and by all means, sign up to the bank offering you the best goodies, just don’t forget that you can and should switch banks if and when those benefits come to an end when you finish up in college.
We’re here to help
If you don’t know where to start, don’t worry! That’s where comes in. In this article we’ll tell you which Student Bank Accounts are doing OK, which ones could try harder and which ones are top of the class, making it easy for you to choose the right one for you.
We should remind you however, in case you missed it, that both Ulster Bank and KBC Bank have announced plans to leave the market here. While you can technically still open up a student account with one of these, we would advise against it as you’ll only end up having to find a new current account provider when they eventually exit. It’s for this reason that we’ve omitted both accounts from this 2021 round up.
Permanent TSB
We say: The Permanent TSB Student Account is maintenance and fee-free, which you would expect from any student account. But it doesn’t offer much more than that to students. There are no student-specific features or offers, no student loan available, no student credit card or student-specific overdraft.
What it does offer is a Visa debit card, contactless payments, mobile and online banking, and access to Apple Pay. However its mobile app and online offering pales in comparison to most of the competition. And it still doesn’t even offer Google Pay.
This account is good if you don’t need any credit, but it could offer online payday LA far more to students by way of a better online offering, access to loans and overdrafts, as well as more digital wallets.