Student-friendly bank and prepaid phone!

[Keravalainen]

Hi!
I think all banks are more or less student friendly. Check for yourself and ask them when you are here.

Regarding prepaid mobile subscriptions, check the latest specials from R-kioski website: http://www.r-kioski.fi/Prepaid-tarjouksia.196.0.html
Pay attention to the charges per minute. E.g. Saunalahti has 6,9 c - Sonera has 16 c.

[nn1212]

I am not sure which banks are student-friendly, but I know Sampo asks you for a letter from your home-country bank... That doesn't seem so friendly. It's easy to get a Nordea account. And in my opinion, prepaid phone is not a good idea. It's better to sign a contract. Phone calls are really cheap in Finland: I paid €22 for the last two months. Besides a hundred sms and some phone calls, that price included about 20 min of international phone calls overseas (and half of the calls were made while in London, so roaming was charged). It kinda makes no sense to get a prepaid phone, unless you're not able to control your phone habits...

[interleukin]

Well the prepaid thing is great when you arrive in Finland and have no credit history. Without that, you will probably have to pay 100-200 euros as a deposit, something most students would not be too happy about. It is also good when you are unsure which company you want to commit to (the company may be crap or the gsm coverage is bad in your particular house for some reason, etc) and you want a cheap way to figure things out before you start signing any contracts.

[nn1212]

Well, I didn't have to pay any deposit. It was just about waiting a couple of days to get my phone working. I am with DNA.