Student money (Scotland/Northern Ireland/Wales)

Going to university is often the first time you'll be managing your living expenses.

The articles linked to below will help you to understand:

the cost of higher education
student loans, grants, bursaries and scholarships
student accounts and overdrafts
day-to-day budgeting as a student, including accommodation, bills, travel and socialising

Getting money
Do you know all the different ways that you can fund your student life? Take time to find out about your options in advance, so you can decide what combination best suits your situation. This may include:

student loans - available to anyone taking higher education. You pay them back when you are working after you've graduated
grants, bursaries and scholarships - available to certain students; you don't generally need to pay these back
working part-time
help from your parents; this is a conversation you'll need to have with them
special financial products available to students from banks - student bank accounts normally have an interest-free overdraft facility you can use as a source of funds

Managing your money
Money can be tight and it's likely to be hard to stick to your budget. By planning ahead you’ll know what essentials you have to pay for and how much you will have left to spend. It will also help you to borrow responsibly.

Find out more

We've put together a short list of resources you might find useful. This is a cross-section to start you off, but you may want to do some more research. Some of these resources are on other websites, so you need to be aware that the FSA is not responsible for content you find on these websites.

Users can rate articles with between one and five stars; this is not an FSA rating. But we have marked the articles 1-3, based on how detailed they are. If you are looking for a very quick introduction, look for level 1; if you are ready to find out more, go for a 3.

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Detail (1 = basic, 3 = advanced)

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Fool - Student Bank Accounts

If you are starting Uni this September this is a good place to start investigating student bank accounts. This article compares some of the student bank accounts on offer and offers tips on what to look out for.

http://www.fool.co.uk/news/your-money/current-ac
counts/2008/07/28/my-five-favourite-student-acco
unts.aspx