<p>Our current bank does not have locations in MA, so we are looking for a local bank. An obvious factor would be convenience of ATMs. There must be an ATM on campus. Is there a fee to use it if you don't have an account with the associated bank? What is the associated bank? I would appreciate experience and advice.</p>
<p>I believe the ATM on campus is for Bank of America; that’s the bank my D used because it was the only option where there was a branch in our hometown and in Boston. I don’t know if this is up to date, but I found this on Wellesley’s website:</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.wellesley.edu/sites/default/files/assets/departments/enteringstudents/banking_and_other_ouside_services.pdf[/url]”>http://www.wellesley.edu/sites/default/files/assets/departments/enteringstudents/banking_and_other_ouside_services.pdf</a></p>
<p>When D studied abroad, BofA had reciprocal agreements so she could use her debit card in ATMs with no fee with Barclay’s in Great Britain, Deutsche Bank in Germany, and BNP Paribas in France.</p>
<p>cq, this is great information, thanks! If others have experiences to share, we’re all ears.</p>
<p>When we tackled this issue before our D’s first year, we initially decided to go with BofA because of the campus ATM being BofA and the fact that our bank (US Bank) has no East Coast presence whatsoever, so that wasn’t even an option. However, we are from Minnesota and as there are no BofA branches here (and only one affiliated ATM in downtown Minneapolis) we decided to open a BoA online student e-checking account for our daughter. Unfortunately, since she had no credit rating of any kind at the time, (and so didn’t exist as far as the credit reporting companies were concerned) they wouldn’t open an account for her. She had had a Visa Buxx card through our account at US Bank since she was 14, but that didn’t count since it was under our name. </p>
<p>I then opened an online BoA account for myself and figured I would add her as an additional user and just keep that account for her use. Unfortunately, I again ran into problems because they wouldn’t add her to the account under those circumstances either and they were not helpful in trying to find a solution. Since I really had no history with them as a customer (other than making an initial deposit to open the account), they didn’t seem at at all interested in trying to making it work. I won’t even go into the hassle I went through with BofA to then close that account and get the money out of it (since with only one ATM in the area, it was essentially useless to me). Needless to say, I would never use BofA for anything in the future.</p>
<p>What eventually worked well for us was adding an account for her to our online ING account (now CapitalOne 360) and with that she got a Visa debit card (or maybe it was MasterCard) that could be used at a number of ATMs in the Ville without fees, or at the BofA ATM on campus (with a fee), the ability to direct deposit her work study checks and also online bill pay, etc. All of those services would have been available through her account at US Bank, too, but there would have been fees on any ATM use anywhere in Massachusetts.</p>
<p>Mamalin, we have a similar situation to you and are trying to figure out the best approach. D will attend Wellesley this fall and we are US Bank customers. I also have a INGDirect/CapitalOne360 account. </p>
<p>My understanding is US Bank is a member of the MoneyPass network of free ATMs. See <a href=“https://www.usbank.com/locations/index.html[/url]”>https://www.usbank.com/locations/index.html</a> and [MoneyPass</a> - ATM Locator](<a href=“http://www.moneypass.com/atm-locator.aspx]MoneyPass”>http://www.moneypass.com/atm-locator.aspx) This shows Century Bank, 75 Central St, Wellesley, MA 02482 as being both Deposit Taking and Surcharge-Free for US Bank customers. It also appears to be very close to campus. Did your D find that this is not a viable option?</p>
<p>If we go with CapitalOne360, it seems the CVS at 65 Central St is surcharge free, but it does not accept deposits. As you mentioned CapitalOne would allow her to deposit via direct deposit or a smartphone scan without charge, but our experience is they place longer holds on funds than does US Bank. Did your D find she had access to her money quickly with CapitalOne360?</p>
<p>The closest BofA branch is over 100 miles away from our home, so that is no good for us. I’m hoping the USBank approach is workable, but CapitalOne360 may be an acceptable option too.</p>
<p>Thank you (and others) for your ideas and experiences.</p>
<p>We opened a BOFA account, and got d a “school” account - we can transfer money between the two linked accounts, so it is easy to get her cash. I almost think it is worth it for the convenience, even if your primary accounts are elsewhere.</p>
<p>Mamalin, I did some more digging and realized that Century Bank just opened in Wellesley in late 2012. That may explain why it was not an option to your D before. ([Wellesley</a> newcomers celebrate their arrivals: Impulse by Adamas Fine Jewelry, Century Bank | The Swellesley Report](<a href=“http://theswellesleyreport.com/2012/11/wellesley-newcomers-celebrate-their-arrivals-impulse-by-adamas-fine-jewelry-century-bank/]Wellesley”>http://theswellesleyreport.com/2012/11/wellesley-newcomers-celebrate-their-arrivals-impulse-by-adamas-fine-jewelry-century-bank/)) </p>
<p>yotommy, aside from MoneyPass, there are some other national networks of surcharge free ATMs that may be worth investigating. One I am aware of is Allpoint ([Allpoint</a> - America’s Largest Surcharge-Free ATM Network](<a href=“Page Not Found | 404 Error | Allpoint”>http://www.allpointnetwork.com/)). However, these are near-campus but not on-campus ATMs from what I understand.</p>
<p>@sakacar, how long does it take you to transfer from your ‘main’ account into your BofA account? I agree that transfer from parents’ BofA to D’s BofA would be immediate, but we probably would not want to have a lot of funds idly sitting in our BofA account. Thank you.</p>
<p>stbentia–you’re right that the Moneypass/US Bank option wasn’t available when our D started at Wellesley–but thanks for checking on that, too! I was slapping myself upside the head when I read your first post and then did a little more digging myself–I just didn’t want to believe that I had missed that option, which would have been much easier than all of the rigamarole I went through with BofA! </p>
<p>As to the ING/Capital360, she hasn’t had any issue with the length of time that they held deposited funds, but then she’s kind of a penny-pincher and generally doesn’t need immediate access to her deposits!</p>
<p>It’s immediate if you use cash - we can just transfer it directly. Hopefully she won’t need large amounts at one time. 
Bank of America is all over Boston, so it just seemed easier to do that.</p>
<p>Cell service providers are what we are looking at now. The joys of sending your child off in the world!</p>
<p>An additional idea - my D already had a BofA account and I also opened an account under her name for her at my credit union (student account) which made it easy for me to add money to her account (since I left BofA personally). The credit union account reimburses her for ANY ATM fees so it has worked out great. Not sure, but would venture a guess all credit unions offer a similar student account.</p>
<p>Thanks to all for sharing your thoughts. Based on the ease of transferring money, I looked at Ally Bank where we already have a savings account. I can open a joint checking account with my insufferable offspring (IO) and get immediate transfers. The account has no minimum balance, provides rebates for ATM fees, and even earns a tiny bit of interest.</p>
<p>One possible drawback could be out-of-state checks. Do kids use checks anymore? Any experience here?</p>
<p>My D has had a checking account since age 14 and I never had checks printed for her - and she hasn’t done so since it was opened either. The three counter checks that came when we opened the account were useful only to give voided checks to employers for direct deposit!</p>
<p>The debit card has been all she has needed - heck the only time I have to break out a check is for my MUD b/c they haven’t ponied up for a pay online website.</p>
<p>That’s our experience as well, maidenMom. Thanks for the tip about the counter checks!</p>
<p>My daughter is entering this fall, and I’m probably going to sign her up for CapitolOne 360. The fact that checks can be deposited via smartphone, combined with fee-free ATM’s all over the place (with the possible exception of the BofA ATM inside the Lulu) make this very appealing. Not at all a fan of BofA and don’t want my daughter banking there. Would love to hear of any positive or negative experiences with CapitolOne 360, in addition to the ones posted above. Thanks.</p>
<p>@daveywavey–we’ve been very happy with Capital One 360 (especially after our unpleasant experience with BofA!). Our D has used it for paying bills (her one credit card that she is using to establish a credit rating) as well to send checks to “regular” people and it has worked very well. If you need to set up direct deposit, they have a form you can fill out and submit to the employer (since she’s never had any actualy checks–although I think you can order some for a nominal charge). And their mobile banking app has worked well for all of us for depositing checks via smartphone.</p>
<p>Thank you, mamalin. Glad to hear it has worked out.</p>
<p>We just opened a checking account for our daughter at Sovereign/Santander. They have a branch in Wellesley Center, but the main reason we did this is because it was free. We have our account with Sovereign and have been very happy with them for years. I’m not all that concerned about the lack of Sovereign ATMs on campus because it’s easy to get cash back when making a small purchase. We’ll see how it goes for the first year and if she needs to switch to a different bank, we can take care of that next summer.</p>
<p>Honestly, my biggest concern isn’t where she’ll get cash, but how she’ll budget what she has! She’s a bit clueless about money, to the point where she was actually taking notes when the banker who opened her checking account for her was telling her the basics. I guess we screwed up this part of our children’s education!</p>
<p>I really wanted D to be able to use the ATM in the Lulu (student center), which was B of A. We have Citibank and just set up an automatic transfer monthly to a B of A account. So she can get cash or use the card as a debit card for things that she pays for (movies, froyo, etc). For expenses that we pay for (eg books) she just uses our credit card. No issues w B of A, but not a lot of demands either.</p>