So we just came back from IU orientation with my D and while it was overall a good experience, we all still left confused about the meal program and I provided that feedback to someone from the University. I understand what our options are and we are doing the IBucks 60 standard plan which should be fine for her. I’m still a bit confused on where she can use them. Are the food court in the IMU off limits for the plan? What about the Starbucks or Sugar and Spice?
What about the off campus places? We saw stickers on several doors that said they accepted Campus Access there which I think is now the Crimson Card. So does that mean she would be using her IBucks or is there something else we are supposed to add to her Crimson Card?
I felt this part of the program was just not very well explained during orientation or in the different times we talked to people at IU so wondering from any current students who can share.
Everything else with orientation was good and she had a good time and is anxious to get to campus on the fall. The only thing we are really uncertain about is the whole dining situation.
I do not believe IBucks can be used outside campus or in the IMU. Campus Access may be cash that you or your student adds on their card, outside IBucks.
IBucks can only be used in campus dining halls or on-campus C-stores.
Campus Access is different - it is basically like a prepaid debit card and Campus Access money can be used at any business around Bloomington that accepts it in addition to dining halls. I believe you automatically pay for $100 in campus access money, and most of that will be used for laundry. Any leftover money can be spent anywhere that accepts Campus Access. If your daughter has a debit/credit card, there really isn’t any point in using Campus Access beyond the $100 you are required to deposit automatically (I think it’s $100 but not 100% sure on that).
So, is it correct that the food court in the IMU is not considered part of the dinning halls so in order for her to eat there she would need to use either her Campus Access(Crimson Card) or Debit card?
My D will be living in Spruce and laundry is included so she doesn’t have to worry about using her cash for laundry. Any money we put on her Campus Access she would most likely use for the off-campus places or the IMU if they don’t accept the iBucks.
Then also, if you use the Campus Access money at the IMU food court, is it full price or do you get a discount?
The good thing is that cash is used everywhere. A good rule of thumb is to simply have her get a minimal food plan like a 14 meal plan and then just provide her with cash for the other needs. She will have a much better time if she has the flexibility of cash. Just have her open a bank account for an on campus ATM machine. You can then simply transfer cash whenever she needs it. Many parents just find all this stuff confusing and restrictive. Cash is the best way.
Everything in the first 2 paragraphs of your latest post is correct. You don’t get any discounts when paying with campusaccess, but the “discount” you get in the food court isn’t real either.
You still have to pay full price for everything in the food court. The “discount” is applied when converting dollars to I-Bucks. Basically, 1 I-Buck costs $2.50. 40% (the part you pay if you get "60% off) of $2.50 is 1, so you are just converting dollars to I-Bucks. They say you are only paying 40% of the list price, but you are paying in I-Bucks, which are worth more than dollars, so it cancels out and you actually don’t get any real discount. This is confusing but important to understand. Just make sure your daughter knows that there isn’t any real discount in the food court.
Also, @MassDaD68 is correct, but I believe freshman that live in dorms are required to buy at least a standard meal plan, so it won’t help this year.
I probably didn’t explain this very well, so feel free to ask questions if it doesn’t make sense.
Thanks for the help. Of all the schools we looked at, IU seems to have the most confusing meal plan of them all. We signed her up for the IBucks 60 Standard plan and will probably put some money on her Crimson Card to start. She has her own Debit card so between the Crimson Card and her Debit card I’m sure she can figure it all out.
So if you have just the Crimson Card and it serves as your 1 card that does it all, when you are at one of the RPS dinning halls, does it automatically deduct the IBucks versus taking it from the Crimson Card Cash account? Do you have to tell the cashier which one to use?
She also signed up for the Sports tickets for Football and Basketball and we’ve reserved her books already so I think she is pretty much all set for the Fall.
It’s definitely confusing. You would be surprised how many students I talked to in the middle of the year that didn’t understand they really weren’t getting a discount in the dining halls. You made the right call with the standard plan.
If you swipe your Crimson Card, it will automatically use I-Bucks. You have to tell the cashier if you want to use Campus Access money.
It sounds like you have everything under control, but feel free to ask if other stuff comes up. IU sports are a lot of fun if you can find a group of friends that follow the teams with you.
IBucks utilization is hit or miss. A few of my daughter’s friends did run out of IBucks and had to deposit more, mostly due to C-Store spending. My daughter doesn’t eat all that much plus gets food drops regularly from us and by end of fall she had a sizable balance. A few meals with us at Woodland (Forest?) took care of that :). The thing is that the 60% discount becomes 25% for leftover IBucks unless you buy a big plan. Thankfully she stayed in B-town for summer so the discount continues till fall.