10+ Free Must-Haves for High School Students

New Zealand school students are eligible for a number of free subscriptions and financial products - we reveal the best on offer in our exclusive guide

Updated 1 April 2022

We've listed many different offers available exclusively to school students which we believe to be valuable for education and personal financial development. While students often receive a '10% discount' at selected retailers, our focus is on providing a list of useful must-know offers that assist learning and education.

As this is the first edition of our guide, if you have any tips you'd like to share, please email our research team.

Our top student offers:

Free Bank Accounts

All New Zealand banks offer a fee-free kids account, and you'll get a debit card and/or EFTPOS card for free as well.

Interest rates range from 0% to 2.50% p.a., indicating a significant range in benefits and features.
Having a bank account gives anyone under 18 more independence and familiarity with handling money.
Many kids bank accounts offer parental control which allows monitoring of expenses (and, indirectly, location).

Next Steps:

Our Best Kids Bank Accounts comparison reveals the top banks who are genuinely helping school students to manage their money.

Free Money for Education

The following opportunities exist for any high school student pursuing higher education, be it a trade, university degree or polytechnic course.:

Free Apprenticeships - the government is investing big in helping students learn skills. This Spinoff article explains more, and our list of alternative study providers indicates what's available (and how first-year free-fees eliminates costs for some courses altogether).
Scholarships - there's a misconception that scholarships are only for top students. This is not the case; our extensive guide lists hundreds of options for students of all abilities
Fees Free (the government's free first-year course initiative) - the dedicated website explains everything you need to know about what's on offer for anyone taking a course after finishing high school.
Student allowances and student loans - our comprehensive guide details everything you need to know about assistance while studying. Student loans do need to be repaid, but we consider the scheme to be world-leading in that students are charged 0% interest while in New Zealand, and you won't repay unless you earn over $20,000 per year.

Free Software (like Microsoft Office, Dropbox and Grammarly)

Great technology makes learning (and life in general) so much easier. We've listed three exceptionally useful apps that offer their services free of charge. Together they sort you out for document creation, storage space and proofreading. Our top free tools include:

Microsoft Office - students and teachers can sign up for Office 365 Education for free, including Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote and Microsoft Teams.
Grammarly - while not exclusive to students, Grammarly's free version checks documents from important grammar and typos. If you're writing a school report, CV or any other document, Grammarly's free version offers suggested corrections.
Dropbox and Google Drive - these services both offer free data storage. This means you can safely store and share your photos, videos, files and more in the cloud. Dropbox offers 2 GB and Google offers 15 GB.
MoneyTime - MoneyTime is an online financial literacy program for children ages 10 to 14. The platform is free in 500+ schools - if your child's school doesn't have it, talk to your school. We suggest reading their dedicated guide for parents to learn more about this innovative platform.
Canva offers thousands of great templates that you can use for school projects like presentations, posters and more, all for free. MoneyHub is a big fan of everything Canva does.

Next Steps:

While Grammarly and Dropbox offer paid upgrades to full services, we believe the free option sufficient for most student and learning needs.
No tools listed above require a debit card or EFTPOS card to sign up for the free version, and any email reminder to 'upgrade' can be ignored and/or unsubscribed from.

Zero Fees KiwiSaver Fund

KiwiSaver is optional; our view is that it's an essential long-term savings plan that helps you with two major life events - buying a house and retirement.
One KiwiSaver scheme, in particular, doesn't charge any fees for as long as your balance stays below $5,000 (and in KiwiSaver terms, that's a big balance for any new member).

Next Steps:

We've listed our two favourite KiwiSaver schemes for kids and students here. There are many other alternatives too.
While MoneyHub is a big fan of KiwiSaver, making the right decisions about whether to join KiwiSaver needs careful consideration,

Related guides:

Scholarships
Student Loans
Graduating High School - The Essential Checklist
Money in a Nutshell
Student Money Tips
Student Bank Accounts