Uni student abroad money saving advice

Makedoandmend

Just wondering if any fellow forum users can offer any useful money saving advice to my daughter for her 3rd year languages degree course which is being spent in Paris. Has anyone got any info regarding best bank accounts or which mobile phone network to use? This is all new to us and the information supplied by the uni has been minimal. Thanks

bewildered123

Universities can't really recommend that students use certain banks / mobile phone networks because of liability issues, but based on the reports coming back from my students, I'd suggest
a) make sure she has internet banking on her UK current account to help her deal with money transfers between countries
b) the current accounts offered by La Poste seem the most straightforward for international students to open and the quickest to issue cards etc. It gets expensive trying to do without a French account.
c) mobile phones depend entirely on what she needs but if she goes to a branch of the Phone House in Paris, they have charts with all the main plans available so she could get an overview of what might be best.