<p>Thank you for your advices!</p>
<p>Any more? Please</p>
<p>I better go to sleep, so I skipped some posts, but my D has no credit card. She also has no checks (she can’t find them… ).She does have a debit card that functions as a credit card, check card, and ATM card. N. Cal to N.C. last August. Just got a coat last week.</p>
<p>What in the world is NEOUCOM? YSU?</p>
<p>If you google YSU, guess what? It will pop right up there for you, top of the list.
Same thing with NEOUCOM. Wow.</p>
<p>YSU is one of the three colleges where med students start if they are in the accelerated B.S./M.D. program at the Northeast (NE) Ohio Universities (OU) College of Medicine (COM). For students who are sure they want to be doctors and would like to become doctors as soon as possible, accelerated programs are great.</p>
<p>Go, Guins! 
The team’s mascot fits this January’s weather.</p>
<p>Ohio is cold and snowy. The changing seasons are wonderful, though. Hopefully, your D will enjoy the friendly people and beautiful area. </p>
<p>I would suggest giving her a credit card that is linked to your credit card account. My D is 9 hours away. She uses the card for things like prescription copays & unexpected expenses. It’s not her account, so she wouldn’t dream of using the card for anything other than what she knows we will cover. </p>
<p>Warm clothes are essential. It would be a good idea to wait until she is there & can decide what her winter fashion sense will be. She can shop online … or maybe a new friend will take her to the mall. If she doesn’t tolerate the cold as well as 4trees’ son, she will want a WARM winter coat (North Face seems to be the brand of choice for college students - I shop online sales & search for coupons for things like that - Altrec has good prices). </p>
<p>Vitamin D is helpful in the winter. There may be less sunshine … but when the sun does shine, it isn’t shrouded in smog!</p>
<p>Call the school & ask what cell plans work well there - if you can get one that’s nationwide, you can get unlimited calling to her.</p>
<p>One alternative or addition to a credit card is to have your D/S have bank account with a bank that has branches at both locations. Deposit in one location, withdraw in the other. I have a few deposit slips and D’s account number in a desk drawer for “just in case.”</p>
<p>With your daughter being so far away Skype would be a great way for you to stay in touch. She probably won’t be coming home alot so this well atleast let you see her!</p>
<p>TheDad, this is exactly what we have with our daughter through her credit union. When she needs money, I can make a cash deposit at a local credit union and she has immediate access to it, if time is not of the essence I can deposit a check. She is in Indiana and we are in Southern California and it has not been a problem yet. </p>
<p>We like the fact that we can keep her balance high enough to meet her needs, but low enough that if someone drains her account the loss is not devastating. I like that fact that she can’t buy anything on credit at this point. She can “build credit” when she needs to and in the meantime she is learning how far (or not) her money will go.</p>
<p>ghostfire, are you saying she’s building credit with a debit card?</p>
<p>No and I did not mean to imply that. What I meant was that she has plenty of time to “build credit” in the future and does not need to do it now. What we want her to learn is how to make do with the funds available to her now. </p>
<p>Mostly I was trying to point out that college students do not need credit cards for emergencies; there are other ways to get money to them.</p>
<p>Just a reassuring note to parents worried about weather changes: D is at school in Milwaukee and has friends from Phoenix and California. This has been a NASTY winter in the upper Midwest. She reports that everyone is adjusting and doing fine – they don’t even talk about it anymore!</p>
<p>Just wondering, how would you ‘get money to a college student’ if they are, for example, stuck in an airport and need to re-route? Or need to unexpectedly spend the night? That’s the kind of thing S needs his credit card for. </p>
<p>Also, when the kid graduates, he’ll need a credit rating, as he’ll be getting phone, etc in his own name.</p>
<p>So far, my kids debit card seems to work anywhere a credit card would. Even shopping online. USAA offers one with a credit card logo, and you can make transfers from a parents account to it , online, and the funds are available immediately.</p>
<p>I do think about the credit rating though. Seeing how differently my kids handle these cards, I could see making the switch for my D, but it wourld be a LONG time before my S could handle it!</p>
<p>Fwiw, my D found it useful that she had already established credit when she applied for her first lease of an apartment after graduation. And I found it useful that I did not have to co-sign anything. I suppose we’re fortunate is that D is very stinting about using credit.</p>