Best savings account for Uni student?

thecakelady

My eldest worked for a couple of years before going to Uni and she has approx £7k in savings that is just sitting in a Building Society current account, not earning any interest at all.

What's going to be the best place for this money. We've been looking at current accounts as they seem to give the best interest but most of those appear to need a regular monthly income which she wouldn't be able to cover.

Thanks in advance

bobobski

Have a search around the forums here, particularly at the concept of "recycling" money - a minimum monthly pay-in does not equate to having a "regular monthly income".

Starter for 10 would be TSB 5% current account up to £2,000 then Nationwide Flexdirect 5% up to £5,000. That gives you 5% on the lot, and all she'd need to do is swap money between the two accounts by standing order every month.

Also, good on her having £7,000 savings following uni. I had zero!

colsten

If she has £7K, she can cover the minimum monthly deposits by simply sending the required amount from one of her accounts to another, and then back again.

The bigger question will be whether she gets accepted for a normal current account as some won't accept students. A lot of students have, however, reported on here that they do have normal current accounts.

One account she should be able to get is the Santander 123 Student Account but that will only cover £2,000.

bobobski

Ah I misread and thought she had just graduated. Still, I never had a "student" account, only ever "normal" accounts. Although I'd like to think it was only yesterday, I graduated 5 years ago, so relatively recent but I can't say whether the rules have changed.

thecakelady

brilliant, thank you so much for the replies and the information.

She already has the Santander Student Account (mainly for the free railcard) but doesn't want to keep her savings in there (too easy to spend it )

The other accounts sound good though. I think she still has an account with Nationwide so hopefully being a student won't cause problems, she does work part-time too so does have a small income.

Superscrooge

What a lot of people don't realise regarding the minimum monthly payment requirements is that it is not the same as regular monthly income requirements. You can pay the money into the account and then withdraw it again.

So the minimum payment requirements quoted on the accounts are not as onerous as they first appear. With a few standing orders you can recycle the same money from one account to another.