According to a recent survey some 80 per cent of DIT students take out loans to tide them over their college years. Loans tend to be individually tailored to suit students' specific needs - most are paid back annually and parents are required to stand guarantor. Most of the major banks offer interest-free loans for short periods - to go to the USA on J1 visas, for example. AIB and Bank of Ireland offer students overdraft facilities or loans at special reduced rates of 1.5 per cent below the standard variable rate.
Ulster Bank, meanwhile, is offering full-time third-level students interest-free overdrafts of up to £300. The bank also offers specific packages to students taking professional courses including medicine, dentistry, pharmacy, veterinary medicine, physiotherapy and optometry. Accountancy and legal students can also avail of special loans. The student market is of vital importance to the banking sector - this, after all, is where future well-heeled customers are nurtured. Every year, all the major banks compete with each other to capture as large a share of the student market as possible.
This autumn, AIB is offering £70 off a Speakeasy Trium Geo WAP mobile phone (normal price £99) plus £45 worth of free calls, or £60 off a Philips CD Sound Machine (normally £99). On top of this, all new, first-year account holders will receive an Oxygen Gold Card, which offers students free text messages from the Oxygen website to mobile phones and a free email address on the oxygen website. Students who continue to use their AIB accounts throughout the year - instead of giving them up once they've availed of the freebies - will receive an Esat Digifone £20 Easy Key Top Up. AIB also promises students free banking and interest on accounts in credit.
The Bank of Ireland Student Package includes free banking on a current account and a free Siemens (M35) WAP mobile phone. First-years, too, can claim a discounted weekend break to London (£99), which includes flights, two nights bed and breakfast and free entry into nightclubs. Account holders will also receive a PASS/ISIC dual card in association with usit NOW.
