<p>S is a sophomore- No meal plan but added money to Bama Cash- looked up BC locations- - is BC mostly used for dining halls… none has been used yet- I recall he used it mainly for dining and laundry last year… do most upper classmen just use debit instead of BC?</p>
<p>Apart from laundry, there really aren’t any places which accept Bama Cash but not debit/credit. Bama Dining has also been known to give incentives for purchases with something other than Bama Cash or Dining Dollars. Bama Cash is a form of script, much like a gift card.</p>
<p>At schools in other states, there is a financial incentive for using their form of script, which are often non-refundable while Bama Cash and Dining Dollars are fully refundable. For example, another school I’m familiar with gives a 5% bonus on reloads of $200 or more in their version of Bama Cash, gives 10% off at campus dining venues, and charges no sales tax when the card is used on campus. The effective discount is over 20% for campus dining and 0-7.725% at other merchants (all purchases at the student-owned bookstore are tax exempt). I’m not sure Alabama law would permit such sales tax waivers.</p>
<p>Other than laundry, there is no real advantage of Bama cash over real cash or credit card.</p>
<p>Back in my day most vending machines took Bama cash so you don’t need to carry coins. Are those equipped with debit/credit card readers now? </p>