Your Finances

When you start you will find that you may be dealing with more money than you previously have been used to. Previous habits such as keeping your money in a box underneath your bed will need to change; to ensure that your money is safe especially if staying away from home during your course.

Any money that you will be receiving in the form of and will require a bank account. They will normally be issued in the form of a but may in some instances be transferred electronically. This helps to ensure that the right person receives the money and helps combats fraud. The amount of money involved can be quite substantial and the safest place to keep it is a bank. With a cash card you will have access to your money 24hrs a day via cash-points machines. This will help to keep the money that you need on your person to a minimum unless you are going on that rare shopping spree.

If you are living away from home, you will have various rent and utility bills to pay. The companies to whom you will pay these bills will require the payments to be made in the form of a cheque, bankers draft or via electronic means such as a or . You can sometimes receive special discounts for payments made via direct debit due to the company facing reduced administration costs.

Regardless of your accommodation status, you will find that cash is not always a suitable form of payment. It is quite likely that you will travel to your University by public transport or by car. Purchasing annual tickets for public transport can be expensive and a cheque or is the safest method to pay for such an item. Cars can become an added expense, whether it be petrol, insurance or even the purchase of the car itself.

Besides being essential to take payment of any loan or grant cheques that you may acquire during your time at the benefits of a bank account may be summarised as:

• The safest place to keep your money with 24 hour access to it when required
• Enables the payment of large sums of money without having to carry cash
• enable you to manage your money more effectively
• Enables you to build up a credit history, so that applying for loans, etc. is easier in the future

Once you have selected the account you want you can get additional information on opening that account from bank staff, your personal banker or even consult the services of a friend or relative that has done this before you.