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Avec:
Develop a relationship with your Ramen Noodles.

lily-kiernan:
Credit card offers=bad. Talk to a counselor if you really feel you need plastic in your wallet. Online banking is the most spectacular thing ever, especially on a campus without much transport.

Get the names and numbers (and probably emails) of at least three people in each class. Make many copies of these, your professors' numbers and office hours/locations, library hours, and campus security info. Tape one copy to the side of your desk, one in a filing system, one in your bookbag, and one saved onto your computer. Infinitely useful. Seriously.

Barmymoo:
I realised with a jolt this morning that there's a major gap in my Necessary Grown-Up Knowledge (tm).

I do not fully understand what a credit card is, how it operates and why one might require one (or not).

Now that I'm a paid up member of the adult crew, my bank says I need to ditch my My First Bank Account and get a real grown-up money box. And I have genuinely got no clue at all what all the different options are and what they mean and which one might be best for me. I have a long term savings account (it has a cheque book and a cash card but no debit card) and then my My First Bank Account (it's actually a 16-18 year old debit card account which I am no longer entitled to use). I'm thinking of opening a student bank account but I actually don't know what one of those is. What's an overdraft? Why is it useful?

Man I don't know shit about being an adult.

pwhodges:
You're UK as I recall, like me - I'll send you a PM with the basics of what you need to know, possibly late tonight or tomorrow, but maybe Monday, as I have a concert tomorrow which will keep me occupied most of the day (I sing, am choir librarian, record the show, and have just finished writing and printing the programs).

StaedlerMars:
pwhodges will probably give you a much more accurate and correct answer than I will right now, but here's what I have in my wallet:

A student card. You get an overdraft. An overdraft means that you're allowed to withdraw x amount of moneys more than you actually own, as long as you pay it back within a certain amount of time after you stop being a student (I think it's one year). This means that you can owe the bank about a thousand pounds, depending on the size of your overdraft, and not have to pay any interest on it. It's an excellent deal, and it stops a lot of worrying about money. Don't use it all the time because you will have to pay it back at some point. Best to keep your card above 0. It's useful because presumably, you're a student, and have no money. For example, if my rent is due, but I don't have the money to pay it back right now, but I will have it in a week or two, I can pay the rent without having to collect massive interest rates for using more money than I own. I try to keep my balance swinging happily on the more above zero than below zero side. I was a lot better at this in first year than I am now.

Don't get a credit card. If you have a debit card, and it has visa/mastercard on it, there is absolutely no point as long as you have the cash. A credit card is spending money you don't have, and if you still don't have it at the end of the month, the bank starts charging you. If your currently a student, a student card full fills this wonderfully without the interest thing.

Also, usually people who work in banks are really nice and informative. Don't listen to them when they say you need a credit card though.

But, like I said, pwhodges will probably be more correct.

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