Start with the fees you pay every year
Every student card decision starts with a running cost, and the clearest way to sort the field is to read the fee lines for the exact account type you plan to open. The HSBC Classic Credit Card charges an annual fee of £0 on its credit account. The bunq listing pairs an annual fee of €0 with a monthly fee of €0 on the debit side, and is sold on a no annual fee model, so a student who keeps a balance in the account pays nothing to hold it.
Those figures only mean something against the wider field. Across the cards listed here, the monthly fee runs €0 to €10.52, so any monthly charge worth arguing about should be compared with that spread. Cash is the second line: the free withdrawal allowance across the listings runs €0 to €0.62, and a card with free annual fees can still be a poor choice if much of your money comes out of a cash machine.
Borrowing is where the two approaches separate. The HSBC Classic Credit Card lists a representative annual rate of 29.9% on the credit account, and its buy now pay later plan costs 3.09% to 3.49% across a plan of 17 to 36 months. The bunq listings show no interest charge on the credit element, so a cost only appears if you choose to carry a balance.
Work out whether the card is a debit card and which account holds the credit
Card type decides who owes the balance. The bunq listing and the bunq Spain listing both give the card as a debit card, and both pair it with a credit element on the same account. The HSBC Classic Credit Card is listed the same way, with a debit card sitting alongside credit on the account.
That combination has a practical effect for a student. Spending draws on the money in the account first, and the credit side only becomes a cost if you decide to borrow. Read the terms for the card together with the terms for the account, because the two carry different charges and different protections, and an account with free standing fees can still charge for an overdraft or a late payment.
Check the card is aimed at students at all
Audience is the fastest filter in the comparison, and it is where these listings differ most. The bunq listing names students as its audience, and the bunq Spain listing does the same, so both are built with a student in mind. The HSBC Classic Credit Card names business as its audience, which makes it a useful cost comparison but not a student card, and reading that line first saves a lot of wasted research.
Start from the Student cards ranking to narrow the field, then read the bunq review and the bunq Spain review against the audience and fee lines before you compare anything finer.
Weigh the currency cost of spending outside your own market
Foreign spending is the cost most likely to surprise a student, because a study year abroad, an online subscription or earnings in another currency turn a small percentage into a visible amount. The bunq listing lists a foreign exchange fee of 0.5% to 3%, and the bunq Spain listing carries the same range. The HSBC Classic Credit Card lists 2.99%. The foreign exchange fees across the cards listed here run 0% to 3.25%, so a fee near the top of that spread is worth avoiding if you will be abroad.
A holding can offset a fee. The bunq listing supports 8 currencies and the bunq Spain listing the same, so you can hold the study currency and your home currency side by side and convert only what you actually spend. The HSBC Classic Credit Card is listed with multi-currency and travel features, which points to spending away rather than to holding a second balance.
Compare what comes with the card and how you get help
The feature lists differ in a way that matters on a tight budget. The bunq listing and the bunq Spain listing each list multi-currency, crypto, virtual card and travel features, so you can order an online card for subscriptions and keep the physical one for everyday spending. The HSBC Classic Credit Card is listed with multi-currency and travel features, a narrower set to weigh against the fee lines above.
Support matters more when you are far from home, and here the bunq listings are explicit: help runs by email and chat. The bunq card also runs on the Mastercard network, as does bunq Spain, so a student travelling can use it wherever Mastercard is accepted. The HSBC Classic Credit Card review is the place to weigh what that account offers beyond its fee table.
Put the track record and the entity behind the card in the same frame
A card is only as good as the institution behind it, so the age of the provider and the legal entity running the account belong in the same comparison as the fees. The bunq account is operated by bunq B.V., and the provider was founded in 2012. The HSBC Classic Credit Card comes from a provider founded in 1836, a far longer history, on a brand aimed at business customers.
Neither age nor size settles the question, and no figure on a card settles it. What a track record does tell you is which questions to ask about the money held in the account and about the help you get if something goes wrong abroad, and those answers belong alongside the fee and currency lines you have already read.