Finance for Freshers - Durham University

Welcome and Orientation 2023

Finance Information For New Students

Find out key finance information and how to set a budget.

Your budget

The most important thing you can do as a student is to budget! It's a proven fact that students who budget are less stressed, have better mental health and better grades.

Learn how to budget.

Five easy steps to budget success for students living in College

Find out how much your first College accommodation payment will be
Put this amount of money away in a separate savings account
Subtract any big costs you know you'll have during your first term (books, travel home for Christmas etc.)
Divide the remainder by 15
This is how much you have to spend each week until your next Maintenance Loan payment.

UK Students

Your maintenance loan

We are not allowed to confirm your registration to Student Finance England (or equivalent) until you have completed the University registration process. You will be provided information on how to complete this process when you arrive.

It takes two - four working days from confirmation of registration to your payment.

Don't worry, you don't need to pay for your College accommodation now! See our Accommodation web page for how and when to pay for your College accommodation.

Your tuition fee loan

Your Tuition Fee Loan will be paid by Student Finance England (or equivalent) to the University in three termly instalments. The first instalment should be paid in the first two weeks of the academic year.

International Students

It is very important that you open a bank account as soon as possible upon arrival. Most of the high street banks offer accounts to international students and the table below includes details of the process and requirements to open an account with a selection of the of the major banks.

In case there is a delay in opening a UK bank account, you should bring enough money (Sterling) in cash (nothing greater than £20 notes) and traveller’s cheques to last one to two weeks. If possible, bring a credit and/or debit card. Do not carry or keep large amounts of cash in your accommodation.

Setting up a bank account

A table showing the requirements to set up a bank account as an international student.
In the left column, four banks are listed: HSBC, Lloyds, Natwest and Barclays. In the right column, there is information on what each bank requires to set up an account with them.
Bank	Requirements to set up an account
HSBC	Use Banner Self-Service to produce a PDF Bank Letter and Student Status Letter. This will allow you to open an account online.
Lloyds (Classic Account)	You can set up an account online, using your BRP. They have facial recognition software to do the identification check. If this doesn’t recognise you as the person on the BRP, then you’ll get a reference number, which you can take into a Lloyds bank, to confirm your identity. or You can print out a bank letter on University headed paper, get it signed and stamped by your College and take the letter and your passport into a branch of Lloyds. The name on your bank letter will have to match the name on your passport.
Natwest	No international bank accounts. For UK students, they will verify authenticity of letters by phone with student present.
Barclays	Change your address with your ‘home’ bank to your address in Durham, which will be accepted as proof of address. or Get a Council Tax letter from Durham County Council as proof of address. Note: This may take some time with the staffing levels of the Council Tax team.