This probably comes a little late for most University students who will already have a University place and are busy planning how to fritter away their student loans of beer and pizza make their student loan last for a year, but Money Central has a list of the 10 most expensive and 10 cheapest University towns, based on the average weekly rent in the town.

Top of the most expensive list? London, of course, with an average weekly rent of just over £100 (national average is £62.61).Not far behind are Guildford and then Cambridge.

And the cheapest University towns? Stoke-on-Trent, with an average weekly rent of just £41.90, followed by Middlesborough and then Crewe (along with an honourable mention for Wolverhampton, my home town, in 10th cheapest place).

Check out the 10 most expensive student towns, and the 10 cheapest.

photo credit: JasonSansone

The Most Expensive & Cheapest University Towns was originally published at Money Watch a UK personal finance blog. Sign up to our RSS feed and follow us on Twitter.

It’ll soon be the start of the University year (well, more like 9 months), and for those thousands of freshers heading off to their Halls of Residence or student houses without a simple grasp of how to keep hold of their money (I’m not suggesting all students are like this – in my experience there are as many who are careful with their money as those who don’t have a clue), it’s worth taking a glimpse at this post over at FreeFromBroke, which looks at 4 debt traps that students can easily fall into:

1. Keeping up with trends – there’s likely to be peer pressure to have the latest gadgets and to dress in designer labels (although hopefully the recession is making this less prevalent).
2. Maintaining an unrealistic lifestyle – expensive hobbies are probably going to have to take a backseat whilst you pay your way through University.
3. Going out more than you should – this is probably still the biggest trap students can fall into – especially for freshers who are encouraged to go out to meet new friends and get settled into their new surroundings. Whilst in many Universities there will be opportunities to go out every night, it will soon become a big drain on your monetary resources. Even at student prices, going out drinking a couple of nights a week is probably the most that many students can afford.
4. Thinking you will be rich one day – have you seen the stats on University graduates getting a job at the moment? Doesn’t make for great reading, and although things should pick up in a few years, perhaps when you graduate, a University degree won’t guarantee you a high paying job.

photo credit: Yoshimai

Students: Don’t Fall Into These Money Traps was originally published at Money Watch a UK personal finance blog. Sign up to our RSS feed and follow us on Twitter.

If you’re currently preparing for University and are wondering which student bank account to sign up to, it’s worth reading the best student account reviews from the Student Finance blog.

We’ve spoken about the pros and cons of various student accounts in the past, and one of the key points when choosing a student account is to not get sucked in by all the freebies that banks love to offer to tempt students in to taking out their accounts. (Banks know that if they can get to you early enough, you’re likely to stick with them for a long time, hence why they can afford to pile on these “gifts” and offer interest-free overdrafts).

The level of (0%) overdraft is can be a better factor to make your decision on, rather than the freebies, although remember, whatever level of overdraft you get and use, at the end of the day it has all got to be paid back.

You may also be interested in our 8 money tips for students.

photo credit: a.drian

Student Accounts Reviewed was originally published at Money Watch a UK personal finance blog. Sign up to our RSS feed and follow us on Twitter.

Here’s a tempting job offer for the average student who likes nothing more than staying in bed all day.

Bed company Simon Horn is offering you the chance of earning £1,000 for 5 days work testing their beds.

The only requirement is that you write about your experiences on a blog or Twitter, obviously gaining the company plenty of PR in the process.

If you’re interested in this horizontal position, see the full details in an ad in today’s Metro newspaper (in the Midlands).

Lazy Students: Earn £1,000 For Sleeping was originally published at Money Watch a UK personal finance blog. Sign up to our RSS feed and follow us on Twitter.

There’s some good news for graduates who have student loans taken out since 1998 (actually, I think it may be for those who started uni in 1998 or later, and took out a student loan) – interest rates charged on the loans are dropping thanks to the recent Bank of England rate cuts.

Interest on these loans is usually linked to the rate of inflation, and set once a year, in September, based on March’s inflation figure. Last March inflation was 3.8%, and so the interest rate on student loans moved to this in September.

However, as Money Week points out, student loans have a little known clause in the terms and conditions which say that the loan must not be more than 1% higher than the average of the base rates from 11 major British banks.

Following the Bank of England’s rate cuts at the end of last year, that clause has come into effect, which has consequently brought the interest rates for student loans down to 2.5%.

Now, this won’t mean there’s any more money in your pocket each month, as repayments are linked to your income, but the total amount owed will reduce in “real terms” next year, as the outstanding amount will grow at less than the rate of inflation.

It’s often said that a student loan will be the cheapest form of borrowing for many, and right now, that’s definitely the case.

There’s more on the rate change at the Student Finance Blog, and it’s also worth reading their guide to repaying your student loan.

photo credit: CarbonNYC

Student Loans Getting Cheaper was originally published at Money Watch a UK personal finance blog. Sign up to our RSS feed and follow us on Twitter.

Students around the country will be looking forward to returning to university in the next few weeks, and although it’s been a few years since I went to uni, I thought I’d put together a few money tips for students.

Whilst saving money and looking after finances might not be top priority for most students, hopefully these tips will help minimise the problems you could face and teach some useful personal finance skills that can be applied throughout university and beyond.

• Get any financial help you are entitled to – find out if you’re eligible for a government grant to help out financially – 12,000 students failed to take grants they were entitled to last year.
• Choose a student bank account carefully – the banks will probably be trying to lure you to use them from the moment you arrive, knowing that if they hook you now, you’re likely to be a customer of their fo quite some time. Don’t be swayed into a bank account by the freebies on offer – it’s more important to get the banking features you need, such as a large interest free overdraft facility, low charges for going into the red, and accessible branches, rather than a fancy new MP3 player, for example.
• Avoid credit cards – if at all possible, I’d recommend avoiding credit cards whilst at Uni. You only want to be using these if you can afford to pay off the full balance each month, and the temptation to spend would be greater if you’ve got a credit card sitting in your wallet or purse. If you can’t avoid them completely, treat them with great respect.
• Make a budget – it’s especially important to have a budget if you’re not going to be earning money whilst at uni – your grant or savings could get eaten up quite quickly, so sticking to a budget is a good way of making sure it will last. Write a list of everything you’ll be spending money on, which will include accommodation, food, drink, going out, books, travel, amongst many other things.
• Keep an eye on your finances – it’s important to keep track of what you’re spending and how much you have in your account to avoid unauthorised overdraft charges or running out of funds completely. By keeping track of what you’re spending you’ll be able to cut down on non-essentials (yes, that includes alcohol!). Once you’ve selected your student bank account, sign up for online banking so that you can easily check your account. Some banks will also offer account updates by text message so that you’ll always know where you stand. If you think you might be getting into difficulties, speak to your bank as they may be able to help you. If you don’t know your situation, you’ll not be able to spot when you’re getting into these difficulties.
• Check your possessions are insured – if you’re taking TVs, computers, TVs etc. into you student house, make sure you’ve got them covered with contents insurance. In some case, they might be covered by a parents contents policy, but you’ll need to check this. Otherwise, there are insurers who specialise in cover for students, and they shouldn’t be too difficult to find.
• Make sure you have your own car insurance policy – If you’re lucky enough to have a car, make sure you have your own insurance, and are not simply put on as a named driver on a parents car insurance policy (this is known as “fronting” and could lead to an invalid policy). Get your own policy, and if you’re living away from home, make sure the insurance company know where you’ll be living. If it’s registered to your home address but is permanently parked elsewhere, your policy could become invalid in the event of a claim.
• Enjoy yourself, but try to be responsible with your money – if you’re going to be away from home for the first time, it’s very tempting to go a bit wild with your money without having to justify it to anyone. It is possible to have a lot of fun without going mad, it’s all about finding a balance that will allow you to enjoy yourself without ruining your finances.

What would you add to theis list of student finance tips? Let us know in the comments below.

photo credit: fee-ach

8 Money Tips For Students was originally published at Money Watch a UK personal finance blog. Sign up to our RSS feed and follow us on Twitter.

This site is aimed at 16-24 year olds, to help you better understand money issues. It is part of our National Strategy for Financial Capability, which aims to improve the financial capability of consumers in the UK.

WhatAboutMoney.info has some interesting “life stages” guides, for events such as getting your first job after school, learning to drive and going to university.

Whilst the information is no doubt useful, the site itself isn’t the most friendly – not particularly easy to navigate and the layout makes it difficult to know quite where you should be reading – but perhaps that’s because at nearly 30, I’m outside of their target audience!

Having said that, as it’s written by the FSA, it is impartial, so it lacks the selling you get with commercial sites who try to do the same thing, which is probably a good thing for this age group.

FSA Launches Finance Site For Young Adults was originally published at Money Watch a UK personal finance blog. Sign up to our RSS feed and follow us on Twitter.

Plonkee recently replied to a meme on her best financial move in college – I chimed in in her comments, but I thought it was something worth expanding on here.

I was pretty fortunate that I was in one of the last university years who did not have to pay tuition fees, plus I also received a grant each year which helped pay for accomodation and food, so I avoided havng to find a job and was allowed to concentrate on my studies (or indeed, watching a lot of daytime TV).

I guess if I had taken a job, it might have meant I could have avoided taking out student loans, but as they didn’t need immediate repayment, and the loan rate was so low, they seemed like a good idea at the time (and to be honest, still does), so I left university with around £5,000 in student loans to repay.

But possibly my biggest financial move at university was not getting into any “proper” debt -that’s to say, I hardly ever used the credit card I was gleefully given by my bank, and I think that really helped when I came away from university and started job hunting.

Although the student loan was sitting around, not having a large credit card balance was, in retrospect, very important. I guess the reason I never used my credit card was because I simply didn’t understand the concept of credit cards at that point in my life. It’s not because I’m stupid, probably more to do with the fact that I’d never had much experience with them back then. And as it worked out, that naievity probably did me good.

Photo by beckzaiden

Best Financial Move At University was originally published at Money Watch a UK personal finance blog. Sign up to our RSS feed and follow us on Twitter.

Project Gutenburg is a website which publishes ebooks (books in Adobe PDF format) of texts which are out of copyright.

For example, this is the download page for Emma by Jane Austin.

You can of course read the texts on screen, or, as PDFs are good for printing, get a hard copy too. You could also couple this with a book printing service such as Lulu, although I’m not sure how much cheaper this would be than buying the real book (cheapest I could find on Amazon was £5.20).

Project Gutenburg has works from a wide range of authors, such as William Shakespeare, James Joyce, Charles Dickens, George Eliot, Charlotte Bronte, Jules Verne and Lewis Carol, so there’s plenty of classics to choose from.

Students of English: Save Money On Textbooks was originally published at Money Watch a UK personal finance blog. Sign up to our RSS feed and follow us on Twitter.

The interest rate on student loans, which used to be a measly 2.4%, has recently risen to a more noticeable 4.8%.

This means that decision whether to pay off or defer has become more difficult.

There’s a useful article at the Motley Fool which discusses everything you must take into account when making this decision – such as the interest rate of any other debts you may have, such as personal loans or credit cards, which are still likely to be higher than 4.8%, and therefore should be paid off first. The article also looks at saving in ISAs and the differences in a repayment strategy for high rate tax payers. Interesting stuff.

Student Loans Get More Expensive: Should You Repay? was originally published at Money Watch a UK personal finance blog. Sign up to our RSS feed and follow us on Twitter.