<p>My son has an account at our Credit Union. The debit card attached to his account can be used at any ATM without any fees. It is something they do for student accounts. We’re hoping that will suffice as we can just transfer money into it whenever and without a fee.</p>
<p>Safety and convience to the ATM machine should be a large part of the decison. You also want one where you can transfer money with little or no delay. Not all the time, but occasionally my son or my daughter will call and say they need the money for the rent check ASAP. While it is their problem, it is also mine as I would be the one who will ultimately pay the late fee. This way the only cost is they have to listen to Dad’s lecture about being responsible (which they always get in these cases and which I believe makes them remember as they really don’t want to hear it again).</p>
<p>Also, get a credit card for your daughter. Debit cards don’t have as much consumer protection as credit cards. If stolen, the thief can drain more money out of your debit account than your liability on the credit card (assuming you report the lost credit card ASAP). Also a good idea for her to build up a credit history.</p>
<p>Our son is taking a gap year. He had a job for part of the year, and needed an account for paycheck deposits. </p>
<p>He signed up for an online account with Charles Schwab (CS). CS reimburses all ATM fees, which is nice. I have not transferred money to that account, but if I needed to, I would deposit a check the same way DS does – namely, by mail. The only drawback is that the transfer is not instantaneous, so if DS needed money quickly and unexpectedly, we’d have to figure out how to deal with that. (I expect there is a way, but I have not looked into it.)</p>
<p>We have a joint account with our son and it’s been extremely helpful especially with all his international travel. It’s actually not local for either of us, but an online bank available if you are a member of USAA. They allow you six free ATM withdrawals per month I believe. If you don’t have USAA available to you, I would go with a bank with branches near the college to avoid the ATM fees. I prefer to get my kids learning about how checking accounts work before I send them off to college so we opened the accounts late in high school.</p>
<p>Actually, we did both. We opened up joint accounts with our kids on their campus and also have a joint account with them in our hometown. Unfortunately, there is no bank that has an account in HI as well as their campus, so that has worked OK for us so far.</p>
<p>We were able to open the account for S when he went to the orientation (the credit union folks came & were opening accounts, waiving the fee to open). It seemed like a good idea & makes transferring funds easier. Having a joint account in our hometown is also handy.</p>
<p>Have also added them to a credit card, so they can use for large school purchases & emergencies, which they notify us about.</p>