Top student, teen and kids accounts compared

About Top student, teen and kids accounts compared

Student, teen and kids accounts are the accounts opened for school fees, pocket money and part time earnings, and this ranking judges them on the things that decide whether one keeps being useful: what it costs to hold, what it costs to spend or send, and how the money is looked after. It draws on 274 brands, so prices are quoted in the currency each provider bills in rather than converted into a single number. The trade-off runs through cost and everyday use. A monthly fee of €0 is the median here, and 93.2% of these accounts carry no monthly charge at all, so the deciding costs sit elsewhere. Currency conversion is one: the median runs 1.5% against a floor of 0%, with an upper quartile of 2.85%. Cash is the other, and 60.3% of the accounts here make ATM withdrawals free. Below the leaders the list widens out. Some are banks operating in a single market, some are digital only services, and 72.7% of the accounts sit behind a bank licence. Each brand is read on its own market, its own currency and the protection it states.

How we picked

Every account here is scored on three weights. Trust carries the most at 40%, drawn from the licence type recorded for the brand, the deposit protection it states, the legal entity behind it, where that entity is based and how many ways a customer can reach support. Cost carries 35%, built from the monthly fee, the currency conversion fee, any stated transfer charge and the free ATM allowance, read against the spread in this ranking. Offer carries 25% and rewards what a student or a parent actually uses, such as joint accounts, digital only service and free cash withdrawals. Prices, tariffs and allowances come from each provider's own pricing page, tariff sheet, help centre and terms of use, and the deposit figures from the scheme each brand names in its own materials. Licence type is read from what a brand publishes about its legal entity and its permissions, and the currency lists from the rate pages a brand maintains. Partner accounts are listed first, then the rest follow in score order, with cost breaking a tie. A headline star rating or one advertised rate decides nothing here: an account that holds its fees down and keeps its support wide scores above the alternative.

Our top picks

1. 3. bunq: best for Top pick

   It heads this ranking on the combination a student account needs: monthly fees of €0, deposit protection of EU DGS up to EUR 100,000, a local IBAN through iban and a joint account option listed in joint account and digital only. It names students in expats, travelers and business alongside expats, travelers and business customers, and support runs on email, chat and help centre, so a card query does not depend on a branch counter. The cost to weigh is conversion: 3% sits above the median of 1.5% for this ranking and above the 2% that Pixpay FR charges next in line. For a customer spending regularly in another currency, that gap matters more than the free monthly fee.

   • Headline rate: 3.01%
   • Rate type: Variable
   • Deposit protection: EU DGS up to EUR 100,000

   Pros

   • The monthly fee is €0 and the pricing model is no monthly fee, so keeping the account open costs nothing each month.
   • Interest is paid weekly and the rate type is variable, so money keeps earning between withdrawals without a term to serve out.
   • Balances are covered by EU DGS up to EUR 100,000, so there is a payout route if the provider fails.
   • Features list joint account and digital only, so a joint account and a digital only setup are both available.
   • The currency conversion fee is 3% on the free plan, below the 7% top of the range across the site.

   Cons

   • The rate type is variable, so the return follows the base rate and the account ranks 240 of 473 brands on the headline rate.
   • Support runs on email, chat and help centre only, which leaves phone callers with a narrower route in.
   • Features list joint account and digital only, so the service is digital only and there is no branch counter.
   • On the headline rate, 21.59% at axi-card and 24.19% at plazo both sit far above the 3.01% paid here.

2. 4. bunq Spain Bank Account

   bunq Spain Bank Account earns its place in this ranking on the same free monthly fee as bunq, €0, while adding a low conversion stance in no monthly fee and low fx. It is a joint, digital only account with a local IBAN from iban and joint account and digital only, and it names students in expats, travelers and business. The clear limit is help: support runs on chat and help centre only, without the email and phone channels that Crédit Agricole Egypt Member Get Member, next in line, lists in email, phone and help centre. For a young customer with a blocked card, that difference is felt sooner than any fee difference.

   • Monthly fee: €0
   • Deposit protection: EU DGS up to EUR 100,000
   • Currency conversion fee: 3%

   Pros

   • A monthly fee of €0 a month, so there is no standing charge for keeping the account open.
   • Deposit protection is EU DGS up to EUR 100,000, and De Nederlandsche Bank supervises the firm in the Netherlands.
   • The easy access account pays a variable rate of 3.01%, with interest credited weekly.
   • Transfers are Instant and the account carries a local iban, so salary, rent and supplier payments are quick to set up.
   • The account is aimed at expats, travelers and business, which covers expats, travelers, business customers and students in Spain.

   Cons

   • Currency conversion is the cost to watch: 3% to convert plus a 3% exchange rate markup, so spending abroad adds up.
   • Support runs on chat and help centre only, so a blocked payment or a disputed transfer waits on a chat reply rather than a phone call.
   • The rate is variable, so a reader planning around a known return for a fixed period has to accept the number can move.
   • The service is joint account and digital only by design, so anyone hoping to sort something out in person has no branch to visit.

3. 5. Pixpay FR

   Pixpay FR sits near the top of this ranking because it is built around teenagers rather than around travel or business. The audience in teen is teens, the free ATM withdrawal allowance is €1, and free ATM withdrawals and joint accounts both appear in free atm and joint account. Funding by card or transfer carries no top up fee and there are no transaction charges on top. Deposit protection runs to EU DGS up to EUR 100,000 and a local IBAN comes with the account. The trade-off against bunq above is a monthly fee of €3.99 where bunq charges €0, set against a conversion fee of 2% that is easier on pocket money spent abroad.

   • Monthly fee: €3.99
   • Deposit protection: EU DGS up to EUR 100,000
   • Currency conversion fee: 2%

   Pros

   • Built for teens as the account's stated audience, which is a smaller field than general accounts
   • Deposits are under EU DGS with cover of EU DGS up to EUR 100,000
   • No charge to top up by card or transfer, and no transaction fees, so everyday money movement costs nothing
   • Free ATM withdrawals, a feature shared by 52.9% of the accounts tracked
   • An IBAN is issued, the local detail most accounts on the site provide

   Cons

   • A monthly fee of €3.99 where the site median is €0
   • A currency conversion fee of 2%, against a site median of 0.5% and a teen and student median of 1.5%
   • Support runs on email, chat and help centre only, with no phone line listed
   • The licence sits with the Malta Financial Services Authority and De Nederlandsche Bank rather than a French authority

What to look for

The monthly fee, and the bar to clear

Most accounts in this group cost nothing to hold: the median is €0 and the high is €13.15, with a lower quartile of €0. Across the wider set of accounts on the site, monthly fees run €0 to €13.15, so a standing charge here is worth weighing against that spread.

What currency conversion costs

Students and teens often pay in another currency. The median conversion fee here is 1.5%, the upper quartile is 2.85% and the floor is 0%, against a wider market spread of 0% to 6.7%. A few points on a card used abroad adds up faster than a monthly fee.

Cash withdrawals

60.3% of the accounts here include free ATM withdrawals, the most common freebie in this group, and 36.6% run joint accounts. Since 40.2% of these accounts are digital only, check whether a card and a cash machine are part of the offer at all before choosing.

Licence type and deposit protection

72.7% of these accounts sit behind a bank licence and 27.3% behind an e-money licence. Deposit protection figures are given by the members that publish them, and those figures are the ones to read, together with the entity that stands behind the account.

Currencies for studying or working abroad

The median account here holds 5 currencies, the upper quartile is 12 and the top of this ranking reaches 170. 81.9% of these accounts carry a local IBAN, which matters when money has to arrive from another country.

How support is reached

A help centre is the most common channel at 83.1%, phone support is close behind at 87.1%, chat follows at 41.9% and community forums are rare at 6.2%. For a new account, a phone line can settle a blocked card sooner than a form.

Frequently asked questions

Top student, teen and kids accounts compared by country

• Australia
• Brazil
• Canada
• China
• France
• Germany
• India
• Ireland
• Italy
• Japan
• Philippines
• Singapore
• Spain
• United Kingdom
• United States

The data behind this ranking

All data and the CSV