For new students at UA what are your banking recommendations? I know there is an Alabama Credit Union branch inside Ferguson Center on campus so that seems promising. It appears Regions bank also has a large presence in Alabama. Also, if you are a parent of a UA student how do you handle moving money to your student’s account? What works best?
If your bank has free ACH (automated clearing house) bank-to-bank transfers, that can be an easy way to move money to a bank account at a different bank, although there may be a few day delay (unlike with more expensive wire transfers).
https://www.nerdwallet.com/blog/banking/ach-transfers/ describes ACH transfers.
The Alabama Credit Union allows transactions at any other credit union that offers shared branching. http://sharedbranching.org/
My son had an account there, but I was able to go to a local credit union to perform any transactions.
Also in Alabama a student must be 19 to have a bank account without a co-signer, so since my son was still 18 when he started school, my name was on that account, which made conducting transactions even easier.
My son has since graduated and moved back to Indiana, but has not changed his banking and still uses Alabama Credit Union because he is able to take advantage of direct deposits, electronic banking, and shared branching to meet all his needs.
I also added him as an additional user on a couple of my credit cards. For purchases like books, he would use that card to pay and let me know and then I’d just pay the bill. That also allowed him to start building credit while he was in school. If he ever misused the card, it would have been quick and easy to remove him, but he was always responsible with my cards.
Although not familiar with UA specifically, I have found that S and virtually all of his friends use Venmo and ignore the banking system. Of course the venmo account needs to be linked to their bank (actually funds can just stay in venmo). They frequent shops (mainly food) that accept venmo payments. He does have a BofA account and exclusively uses remote check deposit on his phone. He never goes into an actual bank branch. Has a debit card. I mention this because BofA is not convenient from a branch perspective (to campus) but it literally doesn’t matter. We chose BofA because we wanted him to easily be able to use an ATM without fees but he never uses one.
Funny, I can’t stand being without cash. He can’t stand having it as he prefers things electronic. That’s their generation.
Both of my kids at 2 different schools (one at UA) have kept their accounts at their home bank. Paychecks are direct deposited and I can add money at the branch or via Venmo. They use their debit card and Venmo for payment. Each has a small amount of cash “just in case” but rarely need it.