<p>Hey, I’m an incoming freshman in the fall and I was wondering what banks do most students use/which are the most convenient/ and which ones don’t charge service fees for using different ATMs. I wanted to open an account here where I live and then hopefully have the same bank in Providence. Any help would be greatly appreciated!</p>
<p>Hey.
I'm from the west coast, and I had a WaMu bank account before I came here, but now I use Bank of America. Bank of America has a bank of ATMs in the Brown bookstore, and an ATM in Faunce House, which is the central student building on campus, housing the mail room and the student cafe.</p>
<p>There is also a Citizens Bank on Thayer Street (the main drag around here, separating Brown from the outside world). The actual Bank of America is a couple blocks away from campus, but that shouldn't matter too much, as you can do all of your banking ( either online or via ATM (including deposits by ATM).</p>
<p>During the first week of orientation, the banks have all sorts of promotions and will easily help you set up an account and transfer money from your old bank if necessary. What I did, however, was just go to a local Bank of America near my house before I left for Brown so that I wouldn't have to deal with that sort of thing once I arrived.</p>
<p>The closest actual bank to campus is the Sovereign Bank at the corner of Waterman and Thayer across from the SciLi. They have atm's in all the CVS stores as well as at that location. Plus they were giving out free foldable chairs which were much better than the freebies the other banks were giving.</p>
<p>We've been over this before but the BOA is two blocks from the most remote part of campus...it is not really two blocks from the main part of campus where everyone goes to school and walks around. Sov is the most convenient brick and mortar bank, followed by Citizens.</p>
<p>son has acct at Sovereign and finds it very convenient. They even have ATMS in the CVS near our house. They all set up booths at the beginning of the school year and possibly at ADOCH as well. It took us 10 min to open the acct. Some kids use Bank of America but the "main branch" is a few blocks from campus, although they have an ATM in Faunce I believe.</p>
<p>I found Bank of America to be ideal beacuse it's peppered all over my hometown(we have two that are literally like three blocks away from each other that I can think of off the top of my head) and reasonably convenient at Brown. If you need to go to the actual main bank, it can be a pain(I'm still not sure where it is...), but like it has been said before, there are 2 ATM's on campus that are really easy to access. I'm from the West Coast and had never seen Soverign Bank before the bank fair.</p>
<p>My D has an account at B o A also, and did it just like justbreathe-- at home before she left. It may not be as convenient as the brick and mortar Sovereign on Thayer Street, but it is more common throughout the country. That is why we chose BoA also.</p>
<p>The BoA ATMs are in the mall, in the Bookstore, in Faunce House, and are pretty much ubiquitous across the country which is why I chose BoA. The ATMs are full service so you can deposit checks, etc right there. There are two BoA branches near Brown campus-- one is right in the heart of the city in Kennedy Plaza which is pretty much directly down the Hill from Brown and is on the way to places like the Mall, AS220, Lupos, etc. If you're the type of person that goes downtown or is going to take advantage of downtown, you'll pass this branch just about every time you're down there.</p>
<p>The other branch is in Wayland Square up Angell probably 6-7 blocks. It's a nice walk when the weather is nice and the Wayland Square area is a nice area in general to hang out, but it's a bit far in the cold. Fifteen minute walk each way, I'd say, though since I've had my car up here the last 6 months my walking sense has been a bit off. That may be too long.</p>
<p>That being said, I find the hooplah made out about having a closer brick and mortar location to be completely overblown, and for me, BoA has been significantly more convenient due to their locations not only at home, but around the rest of the country as well.</p>
<p>I use a state bank back home because one of my family members is pretty high up so I get some perks. It's not a problem having two different banks.</p>
<p>There's a BOA ATM right next door to the bookstore too</p>
<p>hey there's an atm in faunce too. :)</p>