<p>Generally if it's your bank that owns the ATM, there's no fee for it.</p>
<p>So to withdraw cash on a regular basis I'd have to have a checking/savings account with them? Or can i just have a credit card, and they'd charge me for the cash i withdraw?</p>
<p>Do NOT use a credit card to withdraw cash. They charge you a ridiculous amount of fees to turn credit into cash, and it's 99% of the time not worth it.</p>
<p>In order to have no-fee service from an ATM, you need to have an account with the bank that owns that ATM. If you do not, then both your own bank and the bank who owns the ATM have the right to charge you a fee -- combined, this can add up to $4.50 per transaction or more. </p>
<p>Some banks (very, very few) will reimburse you for other banks' ATM fees and not charge you their own, but don't count on that. It's not true of the major nation-wide ones like Bank of America, Washington Mutual, Wells Fargo, etc.</p>
<p>The general advice is to:
</p>
<p>Their ATMs are scattered throughout Berkeley so it shouldn't be a problem.</p>
<p>@ experienced berkeley students..</p>
<p>Do you find that having a credit card is even necessary, if you can't even use it to withdraw cash? Or do you just stick with cash + Cal1Card?</p>
<p>A few places only take cash, usually small eateries, so I keep a debit card/checking account for withdrawing cash from an ATM.</p>
<p>I also use a credit card, which I try to use wherever a merchant accepts it. It's really handy for large purchases, like books/supplies which can easily reach $200-300.</p>
<p>Debit cards/checking accounts can run low, preventing you from withdrawing cash or buying things until more money is transferred in to the account. Credit cards don't have such problems if you stay within the monthly credit limit (~$1000/mo). Plus credit cards help build your credit score + history as long as you pay the bills and don't go over credit limits.</p>
<p>I never really found a good use for the Cal1Card except for laundry. Only select places take the Cal1Card as a debit card and once you transfer money into the account you can't transfer it back out without paying a hefty fee.</p>
<p>you only use Cal1 Card for laundry? wow, they're trying to entice students to deposit 500$ by tomorrow for a drawing for 75$</p>
<p>@Go Bears: You can use it for a lot of the restaurants/stores on campus, but you could do that with cash as well. What ethancc2 is trying to say is that it's only useful for laundry, since the machines there only take quarters.</p>
<p>Basically, at the beginning of the semester I put $100 on my Cal1Card. There are three primary places where I spent money on my Cal1Card:</p>
<p>-Laundry
-Chipotle
-Residence Hall soda machines (to fuel my unhealthy Sprite addiction*)</p>
<p>*Explanation: For the entire school year, I was mislead into believing Coca-Cola was non-vegetarian because it generally doesn't meet Passover Kosher laws (which are apparently stricter) or something like that. I am a vegetarian Indian Buddhist (of Hindu birth), so I stopped drinking Coca-Cola all year long; as a result, every day at the DC I would have Sprite as opposed to Coca-Cola. Furthermore, in Bowles, there is a vending machine that takes Cal1Card that I would end up using to buy soda whenever I would bring food from outside.</p>