<p>As the day my d leaves for college is drawing closer, I am wondering how to handle those little financial emergencies when my d needs some cash for lets say a car repair, etc.</p>
<p>Are you putting your child on your credit card? Are you giving them a debit card or a Visa gift card to spend on everyday items or emergencies? How are you handling it?</p>
<p>debit card with a local bank would make the most sense</p>
<p>My mom’s name is on my checking account, we both have accounts at the same bank. She can go online and transfer money 24 hours a day.</p>
<p>USAA allows instant online transfers from any bank I connect, to their USAA debit cards.</p>
<p>Both our kids have Bank of America student accounts, which include a low-limit credit card and free checking, plus a debit card. To give our kids money, we just make an online transfer from our account to theirs. This also allows us to view their accounts, so we can see if anything untoward is going on.</p>
<p>The only drawback to this system is if there is not a nearby B of A ATM to withdraw cash. If your kid only uses non B of A machines, the extra fees will start to pile up.</p>
<p>My D uses a debit card linked to our account. We can see her expenditures and transfer money instantly. Since there is not always a Wells Fargo around, she just gets cash at grocery stores to avoid extra fees.</p>
<p>I deposit money into son’s checking acct at local bank.
Only need to do this for extraordinary situations as he pays for his own food, incidentals, gas, etc on his own.</p>
<p>Son has a credit card (his own) for emergencies, and no car (so no car repair expenses). If we need to send him money we’ll send him a check or I suppose we could deposit it directly in his credit union account here in town.</p>
<p>Watch out for the “Visa Gift Card”-like products. They can be difficult to use. You must know the exact amount remaining on the card and often you can only make one transaction a day. If something “messes up” a transaction, it can be difficult to start over plus they lose value if not used up within a certain time period. I work retail and we dread the Visa Gift cards. Half the time, they create some kind of problem. </p>
<p>My s has a debt card, into which I can transfer money. At our bank (Wachovia/Wells Fargo), you can set up an automatic transfer of a specific amount on a specific date. </p>
<p>Find out which banks have ATMs on/near campus to avoid fees.</p>
<p>Both of my kids found banks that had branches both on their campuses and in our home town. I could deposit money in their accounts if necessary.</p>
<p>^We did the same when we found that D’s school has M&T ATM machines. I linked her savings and checking accounts, and my name is on both, so have had no problem making deposits or online transfers from one account to the other. I didn’t have her sign up for a credit card but gave her a low-limit ($1-2K) card on one of my accounts…she’s never used it. Also gave her a AAA card which turned out to be a very handy thing, saving her a tow charge and a locksmith call.</p>
<p>If you can’t (or don’t want to) link your accts together, PayPal is a good way of sending money. It’s free. The only down side it takes a day or two.</p>
<p>S can’t take his car to school, but he has a credit card linked to one of our accounts for emergencies. He’s had that since he traveled to Tanzania a few years ago without us. He has found a local bank that has a very convenient branch at school so he’ll open a new checking account there this summer and close out his old account. He also has some online accounts for stocks and mutual funds, he can transfer money between these accounts and his checking.</p>
<p>Our daughter has an account linked to ours as well. She uses her ATM/debit card for everything - $1.50 drinks on up. It’s so funny to see all these little charges that, in the end, add up to $20. She says it’s just easier than trying to get to an ATM for cash and she feels she spends less with the card than with cash. I guess she can’t really do bake sales and such with a card!</p>
<p>My D has her summer job earnings in an ING savings acct linked to her checking acct, so she can transfer her money directly. She has a credit card in her name (before the law changed to need a cosigner) but it has a low limit. Her ING acct is linked to mine, and her bank checking is also linked to mine, so we are covered numerous ways!</p>
<p>takinitallin, thank you for the grocery store suggestion! The school that my son will be attending does not have a ATM tied to any one bank (I don’t understand this), which means fees!!! Apparently there is a grocery store within walking distance, so perhaps this idea could work!</p>
<p>We’ve decided that he will open up a student checking account and debit card. We will add him to one of our credit cards for emergencies. All of the money in his checking account will be from his summer earnings (working PT and saving for 2 summers while in hs).</p>
<p>S has his own checking with a debit card. Our bank only offers visa debit cards - and found out his campus does not accept visa. He can get cash at an atm, but cannot use his card anywhere. (book store, coffee shop on campus, etc). </p>
<p>Their college student ID’s are linked for charging. He can get coffee at the library, milk at the on campus convienence store, etc and charge it to his school account. We’ll get the bill once a month.</p>
<p>I’ll just deposit into his checking account when needed.</p>
<p>Checkers, does his college offer some type of “college dollars” that you can put onto his school ID and use a debit card on campus? A lot of schools offer that, and some schools even offer $50-200 per semester or year for food (flex dollars tied to a meal plan for things like coffee or food purchase at the campus’s convenience store, or bookstore).</p>
<p>We have a joint account. S1 has a credit card with a $500 credit limit. Originally the limit was supposed to increase a modest amount each year, but the new credit rules don’t allow that. He didn’t have a big enough limit for plane flights when he was job hunting which was annoying.</p>
<p>Credit card is a must.</p>