Parents guide on what to - first child going to Uni in Sep 2021

[portico]

Hi all
I am clueless, and need someone to please advise if a good website.

DS1 is going to Uni in London in Sep 2021. I need to find a noddy parents guide on what we need to under the following themes, and anything else you may think I have missed:

1. Admin,
   A) getting tuition fees physically paid, when does this happen. Can I pay myself or does it need to be a loan. Can feed be paid monthly.
   B) how do we get accommodation in halls booked, and when. How do we pay, can we pay monthly.
   C) Who gets the correspondence with the Uni, my son or me as the parent

2. Onboarding
   A) Is there any other part of the onboarding process I don’t know about?
   B)

All these jobs are your son's jobs, not yours. Once he has confirmed his offer, they will release accommodation booking to him. Some unis do this at a set time, some give preference to people who confirm early.

He needs to sort out his own student finance. You can help by making sure he has a suitable current account and discussing budgeting with him, and teaching him how to cook a handful of healthy meals. Make sure he knows how to make a bed, wash a laundry load, wash up after cooking. Help him organise a timetable and sort out what materials he needs for his coursework.

You will also need, nearer the time, to do The Big Shop with him: duvet covers, towels, cooking pots, pans, utensils, crockery, glassware etc as well as a few nice things to make his room his own - I got DC a lamp a rug and a throw each.

Has anybody got any recommendations for student bank accounts? Good and bad experiences.

The incentives and free railcards are less important than how easy mobile banking is etc. We have had a bad experience with HSBC. Current HSBC account has the slightly incorrect name on and still, 2 years later, we are going around in circles to try to change it.

Both my DDs have Santander accounts. They had them as teens and Santander offered the longest overdraft/best interest when in credit. Both use the app. When DD1 mislaid her debit card, they were great on the phone and put a temporary block on it. When DD2 had a fraud attempt made, they were calm & kind on the phone with her (she was hysterical) and immediately sorted her with a new card and PIN.

MoneySavingExpert has a good section on student finance so it's worth pointing it out to your DC.

Malbecfan thanks. I will get her to look at santander.