What is a bank?

A bank is a licensed organisation that looks after money and lends money to others. Banks are mainly concerned with making and taking payments, looking after money, and lending money to individuals and organisations.

What is a building society?

A building society is essentially the same as a bank, they look after money and lend money to homebuyers. The difference is that building societies are owned by their customers.

What is a credit union?

A Credit Union is a cooperative financial institution, meaning that it is owned and controlled by its members. Credit Unions are non-for-profit, collectively owned and managed institutions which offer financial services including saving, current accounts and credit.

Why open a bank account?

Most people have a bank account so that their income (money) can be paid in directly and accessed easily.

Sources of income that are generally paid directly into a bank account include; wages or salary, student loans, Educational Maintenance Allowance (EMA), pensions or state benefits, tax credits.

Paying bills is easier and sometimes cheaper when you have a bank account as you can pay the company directly from your account.