Get that bank account NOW

Parents Forum
21

<p>Marian:</p>

<p>Does your D have a credit card account? S had one jointly with his dad until after he turned 18. He now has his own. Dad occasionally transfers money electronically into the account to pay bills. It's handy when settling bills for books that can come up to a couple of hundred dollars, or purchasing fairly big ticket items. So far, S has used his credit card, the ATM machine and echecks (but only a couple of times). We impressed on him the importance of paying his credit card bills on time. He found having his own credit card very useful recently when purchasing an airline ticket online.</p>

22

<p>At my son's school, the student only has to show his school ID at the bookstore and the books may be put on the term bill. Perhaps you might check with the college bookstore to see if this is an option. </p>

<p>At the health center, any extra charges go on the term bill too.</p>

23

<p>Oh boy, can I echo the title of this thread! With our first child, a girl in NYC on her own, DH dropped her off and helped her get settled in the dorm but did not do the bank thing for her. So she opened an account herself with Citibank and THEN discovered she wouldn't be able to withdraw her money for a week! (Is this NY rules or just Citibank?) </p>

<p>Luckily she had some money for living expenses, but couldn't buy any books or big ticket items. And when I tried to send her a check overnight, it was a comedy of errors--that was the day the FedEx driver missed the mailbox (and then it was the weekend), and money we tried to wire directly to her account took days and no one at the bank could tell us why. Again, mysterious NY banks holding the money in limbo. It was probably worth a call to Federal regulators, but we didn't bother.</p>

<p>With subsequent kids we opened an account the summer before, at the same bank as Mom, so it's easy to add money if necessary.</p>

24

<p>To the OP: If time is a problem, you could always add her signature to your account and have her pay for her books using your account this time. Perhaps a spare check or two stored away might not be a bad idea?? I think college kids should have a credit card with a small maximum balance for emergencies, etc. Most companies will allow both student signature and parent signature on this type of account. Special offers in the mail are fairly common.</p>

25

<p>
[quote]
So she opened an account herself with Citibank and THEN discovered she wouldn't be able to withdraw her money for a week! (Is this NY rules or just Citibank?)

[/quote]
</p>

<p>I don't think it's NY rules. It's where the checks that she deposited in that account come from. Checks from local banks clear almost immediately. Those from banks in other parts of the country don't. </p>

<p>So if your daughter was trying to open her account using checks written on banks from other parts of the country (such as her parents' hometown bank account), she would have to wait a substantial amount of time before the money would be available.</p>

<p>When my daughter went to open her checking and savings accounts yesterday at a bank in Maryland, she had with her 1) some cash, 2) a check written by me on my account at a bank three miles away, 3) a paycheck from her summer employer (she works at a local retail store that is part of a national chain, and the checks are issued from a bank in Texas), and 4) a birthday check from her aunt, who lives in California. She was told that the first two items (the cash and the check from the local bank) would be available for withdrawal immediately, but that it would be a full week before she would have access to the money that had originated at the banks in Texas and California.</p>

<p>This has important implications for how we're going to manage money in the future, since my daughter will be attending an out-of-state college (in New York state). If my daughter needs money quickly, I will NOT send her a check. Instead, I will deposit money in her account, which she opened at a hometown branch. That money would be available to her immediately; she would be able to go to the bank branch at her college and cash a check the same day. But if I sent her a check, not only would it take a couple of days to arrive in the mail, it would take several days beyond that to clear (because she would be depositing it at a bank branch in New York, and I would have written the check on a bank in Maryland). This is entirely different from the way that I send money to my son, who attends an in-state university. For him, I write checks and send them to him by postal mail, he deposits or cashes the check, and the money is available immediately.</p>

<p>It is absurd that this sort of thing still occurs in the 21st century.</p>

<p>In my experience, problems of this sort occur even if the two banks in different parts of the country are actually branches of the same bank. In the course of settling our parents' estates, my sister and I have had to send checks to each other on several occasions. We both have accounts at Bank of America, and the estate accounts are also at Bank of America. However, her account is at a branch in California, and my account, as well as the estate accounts, are at a branch in Maryland. It does not matter that all the accounts are at Bank of America. It still takes a week for the California branch to clear a check from the Maryland branch, or vice versa. </p>

<p>Sometimes I think that these bank people WANT us to store cash under the mattress and carry it taped to our underwear.</p>

26

<p>kelsmom, I think it's different when you use a debit card rather than a check, and the on-line "reconciliation" should be just fine. With checks, you have to know what's been cashed and what hasn't, so the "balance" shown on line isn't the amount of money available to you. With a debit card, on the other hand, the money is taken out immediately, and reflected on-line, so that the balance shown in the account is the true balance. So if she doesn't write checks, she should be fine.</p>

27

<p>Both our sons have credit cards and use them for everything they need. Sometimes cash for small incidentals. They actually seem to think that a bank account is some outdated fixture, and neither son uses it much (the main purpose is to deposit checks from employers). AFAIK, neither of them even ordered "regular" checks... I know it would be a good idea to get some just in case, but they don't feel much need to do so.</p>

<p>Because one of their colleges is 1000 miles from our hometown, we did not open a bank account for DS here; we could not find any local bank which would also have a branch in his college town. During the move-in week there were booths of several local banks right there on campus, competing for students. It took DS maybe 10 minutes to open an account in a nearby bank, so he can go and take $20 from ATM without incurring fees.</p>

28

<p>How about if you call the Bursar's Office to find out her CornellCard balance and have her bring one of your checks to pay it when she arrives on campus. Then her available balance will once again be $850 when she goes to buy her books. The bookstore may even accept one of your checks if not her starter checks. I think a quick call to the bookstore will help you find an easy solution.</p>

<p>One of my s's was leaving on a trip shortly after opening a new account. The bank allowed us to put a "rush" on his new debit card and he had it in 2 days. You may want to see if your bank will do this.</p>

29

<p>We opened up a Bank of America account when our D when off to college. The reason for choosing Bank of America was that they had a branch near the college and a branch in our town. We'll be doing the same thing for D2 when she goes off to her college for her first year later this month as well. Bank of America also has a branch at her college. Bank of America has the most extensive network of branches of any bank in the U.S.</p>

<p>Our D got a debit card that she used for everything. She just recently got her own credit card.</p>

30

<p>As of September 1 the FICO scoring model used to obtain credit scores will be eliminating authorized user's accounts from the score. So anyone relying on an authorized user account to build a score will no longer be able to.</p>

<p>And without a FICO score the only way to obtain a credit card "individually" will be with a secured card or establishing some credit history as a "joint" user rather than as an authorized user.</p>

<p>The first credit agency putting this into effect in 3 weeks will be Experian. After that in the following months will be Equifax and Transunion. This will of course cause a ripple effect in a merged tri-agency file pull. Used for employment, apartments, mortgages and other banking needs.</p>

<p>For example Bank of America does a hard credit pull for opening a checking account. And they typically pull Experian. So this may prove to be problematic for those wanting to open their own checking, or credit with no history previously.</p>

<p>My kiddos have set up all their checking and credit cards knowing this was in the works. </p>

<p>Kat</p>

31

<p>Just stash the cash somewhere in the dorm room. Its only a few days and the only people who have access are your D and roommate.</p>

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<p>If you can't have accts at the same bank to transfer money, you may want to consider using PayPal to send money to your kids. It's free, but it could take 3-5 days for the money to show up. I have been using it for years for sending money to my siblings, niece and nephews, and vice versa. All you have to do is to open an acct with PayPal (both you and your kid would each have to have one), and tie PayPal acct to your bank acct.</p>

33

<p>We're using an ING savings account to link between our checking account and d's (no mutual bank near campus). It's then all done electronically.</p>