Top student cards compared

About Top student cards compared

Student money rarely sits still. Terms abroad, a part-time wage and a trip home all push a card into another currency, and the bill for that is the foreign exchange fee. This ranking sets 61 student cards side by side, from debit accounts that spend from a current account to prepaid cards that hold a balance of their own. The monthly fee settles little here. The median monthly fee across this ranking is €0, so the figure that separates cards is what conversion costs. Median foreign exchange fees sit at 1.85%, with 0% at the low end and 3.25% at the high end, and that spread is the real decision here. What the fee buys differs as well. Debit cards make up 79.7% of the cards listed and prepaid cards 20.3%, and the two hold money in different ways. A travel feature appears on 56.4% of them. Support varies more widely than fees do, with phone support on 79.6% and a help centre on 61.2%.

How we picked

Three weights decide the order, and they are set before the cards are scored: cost at 35%, trust at 40% and offer at 25%. Trust carries the most, so the standing of the provider behind a card counts for as much as the price of the card itself. Every figure here is taken from the provider's own published pricing and product pages, or from an official product document, and it is attached to the card it belongs to. Medians and ranges come from the wider set of cards in the ranking rather than from a single card, which is why they are shown as ranges in the criteria below. Partners are listed first, then everything else in score order, so a sponsored card never sits at the far end of the table. Fees are written with the account type they apply to, so a monthly fee is never read across from a credit card to a prepaid balance. Where a card lists several support routes, all of them are recorded. Anything a provider does not state is left out rather than filled in, and no card is marked down for a gap in the record.

Our top picks

1. 1. bunq

   bunq follows in this ranking on a package that mirrors the card above it: a debit card, a monthly fee of €0, 8 currencies and multi-currency, crypto, virtual card and travel features, with foreign exchange fees of 0.5% to 3%. The issuer is bunq B.V. in NL, founded 2012, and the card runs on mastercard, a network used by 35.4% of the cards in this ranking. Support is the weak point and it is the same weak point as the entry above: email and chat only, so a payment that will not go through means writing in. Against HSBC Classic Credit Card, ranked next, bunq trades a business-focused audience and a single conversion rate for a wider multi-currency set.

   • Monthly fee: €0
   • Currency conversion fee: 0.5% to 3%
   • Card type: Debit

   Pros

   • Monthly fee of €0 and annual fee of €0, with Wise at £0 charging the same on the monthly side.
   • A Mastercard card, on the network behind 38.5% of the cards compared here.
   • Multi-currency, crypto, a virtual card and travel features on the plan, with multi-currency listed on 34.9% of cards here.
   • Help through email and chat, so support sits inside the app and your inbox.

   Cons

   • Support runs on email and chat only, with no phone line for urgent card problems.
   • The upper end of the conversion fee, 0.5% to 3%, is well above the conversion median of 1% on heavy foreign spending.
   • Wise also charges £0, so bunq has to win on features rather than on price.
   • Because the free plan card is a debit card, spending draws on the balance in the account and stops when the balance does.

2. 2. bunq Spain: best for top-pick

   bunq Spain opens this ranking because it does several useful things at once for student money. It is a debit card with a monthly fee of €0, and the account holds 8 currencies with multi-currency, virtual card, crypto and travel features. Foreign exchange fees run 0.5% to 3%, cheaper than the 3.25% high end of this field but not free. The issuer is bunq B.V., headquartered in NL and founded 2012, and the card runs on mastercard. The trade-off is support, which runs on email and chat only, so a blocked payment abroad means writing in rather than speaking to someone. bunq, ranked next, carries the same fee and feature set, so the choice between them comes down to the market you open the account in.

   • Annual fee: €0
   • Currency conversion fee: 0.5% to 3%
   • Card kind: Credit

   Pros

   • The free plan carries a monthly fee of €0 and an annual fee of €0, so holding the account costs nothing.
   • You can hold 8 currencies in one account, and the free plan lists multi-currency, crypto, virtual card and travel features, multi currency, crypto and virtual card.
   • The card runs on Mastercard, mastercard, and is a debit card, debit, so spending comes from the balance you hold.
   • De Nederlandsche Bank is the named regulator for bunq B.V., the legal entity behind the account.

   Cons

   • Conversion is the one charge to plan for: fees run 0.5% to 3% for bunq Spain, and the site median is 1%.
   • Support runs on email and chat, email and chat, with no phone channel listed.

3. 7. CrediMax Cardy EX prepaid Visa

   CrediMax Cardy EX prepaid Visa is in this ranking for reach. It holds 33 currencies, more than any other card listed here, with multi-currency and travel features, and the monthly fee is BHD 0. It is a prepaid card from CrediMax B.S.C., headquartered in BH and founded 1999, with an audience that covers students as well as business. Support runs on phone, email and chat, which brings phone, email, chat and a help centre together, more routes than any other card in this ranking. What it gives up against HSBC Classic Credit Card, ranked above, is the shape of the money: a prepaid card holds a loaded balance rather than drawing on an account. Against National Bank of Kuwait Cards, ranked next, CrediMax leads on currencies and on support, while the Kuwaiti bank lists rewards and a conversion band of 3% to 5%.

   • Monthly fee: BHD 0
   • Card type: Prepaid
   • Card network: Visa

   Pros

   • Monthly fee of BHD 0 on the Cardy EX prepaid account
   • Multi-currency card holding 33 currencies, with travel listed among its features
   • Visa network acceptance through visa
   • Support by phone, email and chat

   Cons

   • As a prepaid card, spending stops at the balance you have loaded
   • Support runs on phone, email and chat only, with no branch or in-person channel listed

4. 8. CIBC FirstCaribbean Mastercard Prepaid

   CIBC FirstCaribbean Mastercard Prepaid reaches this ranking on conversion cost, with fees of 0.2% to 1.6%, a band that sits under the 1.85% median in this ranking, and support on phone, chat and email, including a phone line. The multi-currency set covers 2 currencies, which is narrow beside the travel cards around it, and monthly fees run CAD 0 to CAD 100, so the free end is only part of the story. The legal entity is CIBC Bank USA, headquartered in US, and the parent dates back to 1867. Danske Bank DK, the card that closes this ranking, is a debit card on mastercard with support on phone, chat and help centre and a monthly fee of DKK 0.

   • Monthly fee: CA$0 to CA$100
   • Currency conversion fee: 0.2% to 1.6%
   • Currencies: 2

   Pros

   • Monthly fees run CAD 0 to CAD 100 against a site median of €0
   • Multi-currency spending across 2 currencies
   • Support runs on phone, chat and email
   • Issued by CIBC Bank USA under licence FDIC cert 33306

   Cons

   • Currency conversion fees of 0.2% to 1.6% sit above the student median of 1.85%
   • Only 2 currencies are covered by the multi-currency feature
   • Support is limited to phone, chat and email

5. 9. HSBC Classic Credit Card

   HSBC Classic Credit Card sits just below the bunq entries in this ranking because the support and the standing of the issuer carry as much weight as the price does here. Support runs on phone, chat and help centre, and a phone line is the most common support route here at 79.6% of the cards. The legal entity is HSBC UK Bank plc, headquartered in GB and founded 1836, which makes it the oldest provider in this ranking. It is a debit card on visa with multi-currency and travel features and a monthly fee of £0. The trade-offs are the audience, listed as business, and a foreign exchange fee of 2.99%, well above the 1.85% median here. CrediMax Cardy EX prepaid Visa, ranked next, reverses that, pairing a student audience with a prepaid balance.

   • Annual fee: £0
   • APR: 29.9%
   • Currency conversion fee: 2.99%

   Pros

   • The annual fee is £0, and the Varo Believe Secured Credit Card charges $0 with the Chime Card (Secured Visa Credit Card) at $0, so a yearly charge does not decide between them.
   • Purchase protection under the Consumer Credit Act comes as standard, joined by contactless payments and the option to add the card to Apple Pay or Google Pay.
   • Support runs on phone, chat and help centre, so phone, chat and a help centre are all available.
   • It runs on the Visa network, which 58.6% of the cards on the site also use.
   • The card can be frozen and unfrozen and the balance checked in the app or online banking, so a misplaced card does not need a branch visit.

   Cons

   • The APR is 29.9% in the UK, well above the site median of 20.97%, so a carried balance is expensive.
   • Currency conversion costs 2.99% on foreign purchases, while the Wise card charges 0%.
   • The rewards type is none, so spending earns nothing back, and 49.5% of the cards on the site do pay cashback.
   • The starting credit limit is modest and may be raised automatically, so the card suits light monthly spend rather than a large ongoing balance.

What to look for

Conversion cost

The foreign exchange fee does more damage to a student budget than the monthly fee does. The median in this ranking is 1.85%, the lower quartile is 0% and the top of the range is 3.25%. A card at the low end of that spread costs almost nothing on a term abroad, while one at the high end takes a visible slice of a monthly wage.

The monthly fee

The monthly fee is the number people check first, and here it settles little. The median is €0 and the top of the range is €10.52, so the spread comes from a small number of cards rather than the field as a whole. Treat it as a tie breaker, not a decider.

Debit or prepaid

79.7% of the cards in this ranking are debit cards and 20.3% are prepaid. A debit card spends from an account held with a bank, while a prepaid card spends from a balance you have loaded. The right choice follows how the money reaches the card each month.

Reach abroad

A travel feature is listed on 56.4% of the cards here and a multi-currency feature on 43.6%. The number of currencies a card holds matters more than the feature label, because it decides how many times you convert before you get home.

Help when a payment fails

Support is where student cards thin out. Phone support appears on 79.6% of the cards in this ranking, a help centre on 61.2% and email on 55.1%. A card that answers only in writing is a poor card to hold when a payment is refused abroad.

Cash withdrawals

The ATM free allowance has a median of €0 in this ranking and a top of €0.62. Most of these cards charge for each withdrawal, which matters for students who still take part of their money out in notes.

Frequently asked questions

Top student cards compared by country

• Canada
• China
• France
• Germany
• India
• Italy
• Netherlands
• Singapore
• South Africa
• United Kingdom
• United States

The data behind this ranking

All data and the CSV