one good thing about having your own account, is its independent and your credit rating would be better.

TT cost less than 20 pound per transfer for upto 10000 pounds transactions.

what usually student do is, bring some cash, abt 500 quid for usage while waiting for account to be set-up. the rest in bank draft, submit the bankdraft when opening the account, so when the account is ready, the money is there too.

you also have choice to use other bank than hsbc.