<p>So my daughter does not yet have a bank account ... Should we sign up on orientation day at one of the banks on campus or should I have her open an account closer to home at a bank with a branch and ATM on campus? Does it matter? Either way, will I be able to put my name on the account so that I can easily deposit funds into the account?</p>
<p>Thanks!
Rachel</p>
<p>Either way.</p>
<p>And you can easily deposit funds into someone else’s checking account without having your name on the account. Just present the deposit slip and money to the teller. I do this often – I have even done it in cases where it was obvious that the account was not mine because the account holder was of the other gender. Nobody in the banks has ever objected.</p>
<p>Our experience is that the on-campus banks generally have some kind of give-away for a free account. </p>
<p>Although D opened a “local” account on campus, the bank where I also had an account (which made for easy transfers) was the one that had the most use.</p>
<p>I think convenience for the student can’t be beat. When that bank wasn’t one of ours, I was happily surprised to learn we could set up online transfers from our account to another bank’s account. Check with your bank to see if they offer that! The only difference was a day or two time lag in funds availability vs. instant for same bank transfers. I liked the mechanism for setting up a recurring transfer the same day each month–then, the time lag wasn’t noticeable because our student knew to budget based on the scheduled receive date.</p>
<p>What works for us is to have the same bank for the two of us that allows me to transfer money into her account online and has a convenient ATM near the campus. I’m on her account only because she started the account when she was 16. But you can transfer money into another person’s account even if you are not a signatory on that account.</p>
<p>We had the statements mailed to the home address and would check them every now and then to make sure nothing hinky was going on. But not much comment on where she spent her money. College is a time for the little ones to get practice at making financial priorities and living on a budget.</p>
<p>Right now S has a joint account with me (opened when he was under 18) and I transfer money in as needed. I like being able to keep an eye on his spending and being able to transfer money into his account easily online. Unfortunately it is a local bank which does not have any surcharge free ATMs out near his school or I would just have him continue to use it. The bank the college suggests we use with a branch on campus is local to the school. So I think I will have him open another account at a national bank, one near his school and with a branch close to home) during orientation.</p>
<p>Our kids had accounts at a convenient campus bank. There’s another branch of that bank a block from my office, and it’s across the street from the main office of the bank we use (ubiquitous in our market; absent from our kids’ campus market). After trying other, more expensive methods that were much less convenient, what I have done the past few years when there was an urgent need for immediate funds was to go to my bank, take out cash, walk across the street, and deposit it in the appropriate kid’s account. Funds are credited immediately. It all takes about 10 minutes. It’s the poor man’s wire transfer.</p>
<p>(If you tried this with amounts over, or even approaching, $10,000, it would get a lot less convenient.)</p>
<p>We bank with one of the large national banks and our DS has had a checking account there since he was 16. Unfortunately, there isn’t a branch of our bank within 50 miles of his campus. Not wanting to pay $5 +/- for each ATM withdrawal, and unwilling to move our banking relationship, we had him open an account at the school credit union that has a branch and several ATMs on campus. (They were busy at orientation soliciting accounts and the account has an extremely low minimum balance.) </p>
<p>He uses his acccount at the national bank for most things (and we can instantaneously add money to his account since we bank there also) and the credit union account is just to get spending money without ATM fees. (He replenishes the credit union account by writing a check on his other account and depositing it at the branch on campus.)</p>
<p>I also thought it would be a good idea for him to have an account where he could go and make an in-person withdrawal - just in case he lost his wallet with all his debit/ATM cards.</p>
<p>My DDs school had only two local banks in town. Grrr. But I found out Chase has a way to avoid wire charges, they have something called Quickpay, which is like Paypal, and once you set up, you can transfer money without a fee in 24 hours.</p>
<p>I think you’ll find pros and cons to both. My kids have an account through my bank that I’m linked to (can transfer money online). It was a “student” account, so no fees. I think the only possible downside is ATM fees (which make me crazy), but our bank allows one cash withdrawal/month from another bank with no charge. So little happens with cash these days–I don’t think they’ve had to pay any fees (or hardly any).</p>
<p>I didn’t overthink this–just have a long-established relationship with my bank, am not planning on going anywhere, and I’m assuming my kids would only be in their college towns for < four years (or that’s the hope, anyway). </p>
<p>But I don’t think there’s a big downside either way.</p>
<p>Both kids had bank accounts with a branch on their campus. Both were with Wells Fargo/Wachovia. </p>
<p>Only problem is that when D opened her account there was a 10 day delay for funds to clear. She had brought payroll checks from a national retailer to put in her account plus a check from me and I think a bank check. Didn’t matter the type of check they still put a hold on her money for 10 days. It was a pain not to have access to those funds. </p>
<p>It’s been a while but I think I gave her some $ in cash, and put some $ in flex dollars at her school so she could buy books at the book store. I’m just saying this to be aware if you wait until they get to school.</p>
<p>Banking is a pain. Kids are with Wachovia, I’m with another national bank and neither are in the area of the country that my S is moving to. So he has to try and set up another account.</p>
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<p>This is worth thinking about/talking to kid about. DS did lose his wallet with debit card, credit card (the one I made sure he had for emergencies), drivers license, and all of his cash about a month after arriving on campus. He meant to, but had not yet gotten around to opening a bank account near campus and his account at home was in a credit union with no branches outside our area. It was a good thing he was living in a dorm with a meal plan. I ended up mailing him some cash and a check so he could open a bank account. Many lessons learned here.</p>
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<p>We always tried to set up the bank accounts during the summer before freshman year (or earlier) to avoid this problem. </p>
<p>So true about our becoming a cashless society. I’ve seen my kid swipe for a burger meal. As the smartphones become smarter, we won’t even need debit cards…</p>
<p>Love these trick questions 
</p>
<p>Answer is “neither”</p>
<p>Clues are in caps</p>
<p>Should WE SIGN UP on orientation day at one of the banks on campus or SHOULD I HAVE HER open an account closer to home at a bank with a branch and ATM on campus?</p>
<p>Let the kid make the decision . . . reserve your direct involvement in your kid’s life for more important issues.</p>
<p>I’m sure that the kid is capable, right?</p>
<p>Ours decided to use a local bank she found at the bank fair during orientation and it worked out well . . . and waiting for checks to clear is part of life’s lessons, I’d say.</p>
<p>Not sure, Kei…I think my kids thought money grew on trees…</p>
<p>WE SIGN UP - is in reference to the orientation - which is for parent and child and specifically states in literature that we could and/or should do this together.</p>
<p>Personally, I think the bank account is an important decision and one that we haven’t had to come across as yet. My daughter hasn’t needed an account and college will be the first time she’s working a regular job and will need access an account on a regular basis. </p>
<p>My kid is capable, yes – but nervous about this rite of passage and I’m glad to help her with it.</p>
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<p>This is a difficult and unfamiliar decision for most incoming college students and their families. It’s also something unlikely to be at the top of the student’s priority lists, yet it will have a substantial impact on everyday life.</p>
<p>I see no problem with parents getting involved in this type of decision. </p>
<p>Moreover, if the account is to be in both the parent’s and student’s names, the decision is actually a joint one, anyway. And if the kid is under 18, he/she may discover that it’s impossible to open an account without a parent – which would be an unpleasant thing to discover after the parent has left town.</p>
<p>Because my D1 worked a lot during HS to save money for college, she already had Wells Fargo checking and savings accounts linked to our accounts before she started college last fall. We keep sufficient balances in our accounts that WF has waived all fees on D1’s accounts. Having linked accounts allows us to make instant, no-fee transfers as needed—and it’s not always from us to her, by the way. We have an agreed formula for how much she’ll contribute to her college education out of savings and new earnings, so sometimes, e.g., when a big tuition bill is due, it will actually necessitate a transfer from her account to ours. Fortunately, all the Wachovia branches and ATMs near D1’s campus recently converted to Wells Fargo, a change that has been occurring in stages across the country since WF bought Wachovia a couple of years ago. That makes it really easy & convenient for her to do all her banking in person, by ATM, or online whether she’s at home (where she’s now back and working for the summer) or at school.</p>
<p>I realize it’s not as seamless for everyone. We got lucky.</p>
<p>By the way, we let D1 make the decision but talked through the options with her. Given the convenient set-up she has now it was really a no-brainer.</p>
<p>We signed up online with a credit union on campus at his college. I became an account holder on the account as well, mainly to allow myself to make deposits into the account. The credit union is part of a national network of other credit unions, and there were several ATM’s in my area that were part of that network. He can go into the credit union branch right on campus, or get cash at a few ATM’s on the campus, the closest one was right next to his dorm. He also recently went and purchased checks at the same credit union so he can pay his rent, since he will be moving off campus this fall. It all worked out great…I could see his balance and it was so easy to deposit the money instantaneously into his account without having to send him checks from an out of state bank that would take days to clear.</p>
<p>I would do it now - just get it out of the way. Then you won’t have to think about it on orientation day.</p>