Banks in all-out freebie war to attract student accounts

Long gone are the days when all you would get from a bank on setting up a student account would be a plastic wallet for your bank card and, if you were lucky, £5 (€6.35) - or thereabouts - in cashback. Today, banks are falling over themselves to attract the lucrative student market with such freebies as WAP mobile phones, CD players, International Student Identity Cards (ISIC), and low-cost travel offers, among other things.

In terms of the actual banking products, there are other incentives, including free banking, discounted loans or overdrafts, and dedicated financial advisers.

"I wouldn't be surprised if they were offering discounts on mortgages in five years' time," said Ms Lucy McPherson, a second-year student from UCD, who received a mobile phone, cinema vouchers and various items of stationary on opening her bank account last year.

More importantly, there also appears to have been a shift in the bank's attitude to students as customers. "Students should have a bank that understands their needs and their lifestyles," says Mr Patrick Farrell, of the Bank of Ireland's customer recruitment division. "Students may not have as regular an income as our other customers. They may experience problems with late grant cheques, for example; so we can provide cash advances until such a time as their cheques do arrive," he said.

"We have situations where students will come in to us and say: `Oh, I was away for a weekend and I blew my grant money on a drinking binge.' What they need is a financial adviser who understands what their lifestyle is like and that sometimes these things can happen," said Mr Farrell.

It's easy to see why banks consider the student market so important. The general infrequency with which most people change their bank means that when banks win the accounts of new students, they generally win them for life. The longer they stay with the bank, the better chance it has of selling them products from its range.

Yes, as far as banking is concerned, students have never had it so good. Yet based on the many attractive banking packages now on offer to students - and not just first years - it is well worth looking into what the individual banks are offering.

Both AIB and the Bank of Ireland seem to have declared an all-out freebies' and incentives' war with each other to win new student customers. Both banks offer free banking, student loan rates 1.5 per cent lower than the standard variable rate, 24-hour telephone and Internet banking (AIB has a WAP banking facility, while Bank of Ireland says it will shortly offer this option), J1 Visa loan packages, WAP mobile phones, dedicated student financial officers in all of their branches, and access to student websites featuring all kinds of information targeted at students, including travel, concerts, films, restaurants, and music. Oh, and student banking information too. In terms of distinguishing features, Bank of Ireland's carrot looks marginally tastier. It has teamed up with USIT Now to offer a PASS/ISIC card that doubles as a cash card and an ISIC card. It also offers free home contents insurance where the student's parents also have Bank of Ireland home insurance, and clubbing weekend offers, which comprise discounted weekend breaks to London and Prague for £99 and £115 respectively.

AIB offers the option of a CD player instead of a WAP phone and pays interest on credit balances. Students should note that the freebies are available for a limited time only.

Ulster Bank, by contrast, takes an altogether business-like approach to the student market. It offers a no-frills package based on discounted loans and overdrafts, including offers targeted specifically at groups of students studying for professional qualifications in medicine, dentistry, pharmacy, veterinary, accountancy, law, physiotherapy, and optometry.

Medical students, for example, can avail of overdrafts of up to £1,200 interest-free and professional student loans of up to £10,000, or £2,000 per annum, while accountancy students, funnily enough, can only have overdrafts of up to £500 interest-free and professional student loans of up to £6,000. However, for most students, the decision about where to bank will probably be influenced by some basic factors other than freebies. "The top three factors that influence which banks students go for tend to be the incentives, what banks their parents bank at and convenience," says Ms Caroline Reidy, youth marketing manager for AIB.

While many students may be attracted initially by the freebies, whichever shining branch logo they find located on their respective college campuses will probably be their main guiding light.

While noting that not all of the 35 main colleges have branches on their campuses, AIB says it has a permanent presence on 21 campuses around the country. Bank of Ireland has eight, while the Ulster Bank has none. All of the banks stress, however, that they have branches very near almost all college campuses.

However, the now-widespread availability of freephone and Internet banking may make convenience less of an issue. "With freephone and Internet banking, we're looking to take the branch out of the equation," says Mr Farrell.

A spokeswoman from the National Irish Bank said it was planning to introduce a new student banking package, but no details were available at the time of going to press.