Student bank accounts: don’t be swayed by the freebies, freshers told

Student bank accounts work like other current accounts but have an interest-free overdraft and sign-up offers designed to hook you as a customer for life. Photograph: Bloomberg/Getty Images

In the scramble to sort out university accommodation, join freshers group chats and work out how a student loan payment is meant to stretch across a whole term, there is one big decision that is easy to put off but worth getting right: which student bank account to open.

Student accounts work like any other current account but come with two extras that don’t apply to the general public: an interest-free overdraft, and a lot of perks designed to hook you in as a customer for life.