What are bonus bucks? The Meal Plan dollars you get with some of the meal plans are pretty self explanatory but I cannot find any info on Bonus Bucks… how are they different from Meal Plan dollars?
Bonus bucks are given to you based (I think) on your year and the dining plan. I can’t look it up right now but when D was freshman it was something like freshmen got $20 worth bonus bucks. Can use it to pay when you go over allotment for meal or the buy snacks but they do not roll over. Be sure if you buy something more expensive than meal plan or at other time to tell cashier you want to use bonus bucks (not Carolina cash) since they expire and Carolina cash doesn’t. D hasn’t had dining plan for past 2 years so may have changed a little but USC usually gave students opportunities to use up bonus bucks at end of semester by buying water or snacks. Carolina cash can be used other places in addition to dining and rolls over from year to year.
There’s a little info in the dining plan FAQ but also notes that site will soon be updated with fall 2015 info.
Thanks for the reply. My daughter is going to USC this Fall and I’m looking at the meal plans. It irritates me that the money on the meal plan card ‘expires’ at the end of every week and at the end of the semester. I can’t understand the logic behind losing money. Any idea what USC’s reasoning is on not allowing the meals to roll over to the next semester (other than they make a LOT of money on ‘left over funds’ that expire)?
Worked that way at other D’s school also. At least USC doesn’t require full meal plan for freshmen other school did.
D started with 16+ which seemed to be good $ value, but she just didn’t eat that much and, like I said, preferred to eat breakfast in room while getting ready since easy to keep cereal and milk in your room. You can go as low as 10 meal plan for freshmen.
Breakfast is a good deal since it is (or was) any 5 items for a meal swipe. So you can use a swipe a full breakfast or you can use it for 5 containers of yogurt (for example) if you want to and put them in your room fridge. Or get fruit for later with your breakfast. I think we went to 10 for second semester. 2nd year she was on Horsehoe and didn’t want any plan although I did add more Carolina cash just so she didn’t have to have money with her it she wanted to eat on campus. It’s nice now that places other than campus will take Carolina cash including, I think, a drugstore and drycleaner. Carolina cash is just money, so it does roll over and the balance is returned to you when you graduate.
Like I said, I think you can increase your plan any time but there is a deadline if you want to decrease it before term starts (or can change the next semester). One of the best hints we got was to look at your final schedule and adjust accordingly. If you have classes through the middle of day as D did one time, you really don’t have access to lunch hours so may not need as many meals.