Thought I Would Help..

MoneySavingStudent_2

Hi There,
Im starting university at the end of september and i thought i would lend a hand to fellow students out there. At the end of my school term we had a long talk on finance and i was shocked and appaulled when a high street bank came into our school and said that borrowing money and using credit cards is like stealing!

Anyway..

I thought i would just help out the low percentage of students who actually understand there money!
My bank account is a Freedom Account with yorkshire building society. This account is for people under 21 and offers a lovely 6.1% interest! Ive had the account for a while after my mum opened it for me and then she taught me the money saving way! If your like me and have a little money coming e.g from EMA or something this account is great! The only fault i can think of is the fact i am an ebay and when i try to transfer funds into the account from paypal it doesnt accept it. But if this doesnt bother you or your not an ebayer this shouldnt be a problem.

I also have be amazed at the amount of students who are scared of credit cards! The first thing they think of is debt! but if you work your money out properly and pay it off each month its great! As i said im an ebayer and i have an amazon credit card that i use for buying and selling. I get rewarded for doing the transactions and when i have earned enough points i get a £15 voucher on amazon to use. The amazon card does have a big APR and is stupid but as long as you pay the amount off each month you get rewarded! (And if its something as small as an ebay fee its perfect!)

Being a student i also needed a laptop which seems to be a popular post at the moment. I found the laptop which is best for me and looked around for the best price which was £411. But as a student with just a small amount of income each month coming in and in need of a laptop i had to find a way of paying a desent amount of the laptop each month off. I didnt want to pay the minimum amount off each month as i would have to pay APR. But couldnt pay the full £411 off at the end of the month. So the solution was a M&S more card. The card offers a great 0% rate for 12 months when the first purchase is made! So i brought the laptop on the more card and worked out if i paid £35 a month for the duration of the 0% for 12 months the laptop would be fully paid off so i wouldnt have to pay any APR!

The main reason for this post is just to tell other students that credit cards arent scary as long as you work out how much money a month you have and if you can afford to purchase something like a laptop. Because of martin and my mum and my own research i managed to afford a brand new laptop, get rewarded for using ebay and im getting my £15 voucher for amazon through in the next few days.

I hope i have helped afew people (parents/students) to try and work out there finances to help them get the things they want without getting in to mass amounts of debt.

Coolkitten3003

ames123_2

Thanks for that. How often do you get an amazon voucher?

MoneySavingStudent_2

If you are able to pay the amount off each month and your a keen ebayer like me (buying and selling) the scheme is like the following:

Every £1 spent on amazon = 1 point
Every £1 spent elsewhere = 1/2 point

You need 1500 point to get the voucher, but if you use it alot like me and if your like me and someone else uses it too (my mum) or if you can pay off the monthly payment and you need a new dishwasher (like my mum did) its well worth it!

I also mention the M&S more card which has this scheme:

Every £1 spent at M&S = 1 point
Every £1 spent elsewhere = 1/2 point

You also get offers and vouchers to spend at M&S when you reach a certain limit but am not sure what the limits are BUT this has a great 0% rate for 12 months from when you first spend on the card!
You may have to check this that the offer is still on but we got one about 2 weeks ago and it all worked great!

ames123_2

Thanks. Having looked the Amazon card up, I am going to apply for one of those when I get back to uni.

I shall go and look up the M&S card now. Thanks

MoneySavingStudent_2

no problems!

Helping a fellow student in need!

:-)

ames123_2

The M&S and more card looks better for me, because they send vouchers in little amounts. You don't have to wait until you have built up £15 voucher like Amazon (is that right for Amazon?)

I don't know if you know but can I apply for an Amazon card and M&S card around the same time or would it be best to wait a bit before applying for the other?

MoneySavingStudent_2

i think the more card is better too.
but i like to keep things seperate so i have my more one for alot of my big purchases (laptop) and mainly use amazon for my ebay fees etc but it is good for the one off big purchase that you can pay off.

i think you could probs apply for both around the same time but am not sure but the worse that can happen is they say no and it shouldnt effect n e thing. but if your really unsure maybe wait a week or so.

ames123_2

Thanks for the help!

ames123_2

Do I need an 'income' for these cards though?

MoneySavingStudent_2

I think youll have to check that.
My mum set everything up for me and filled in the forms n what not due to me having alot of finance to sort out at once.
sorry i cant be more help on that!

ames123_2

Yeah I can't really find anything. I'll try anyway.