I’m going through meal plan information. I realize that the Carolina Card is accepted at some restaurants off campus. I read in another thread that Moe’s accepts it, for instance. Is there a list giving current restaurants (or businesses) off campus that accept the card? There are a few restaurants like Shalimar curry house and Sahara on Main that I know my daughter would frequent, but if they do not accept the card, it will affect the plan we choose.
Also, if you use the meal card at an off-campus restaurant, like Moe’s, do they deduct the “Meal Plan Dollars” or do they deduct the “Carolina Cash”? This is not clear.
I also wonder the overhead charged to businesses for accepting the Carolina Card.
From the website: http://carolinacard.sc.edu/
Scroll down to the list of CarolinaCard Off Campus Merchants who accept CAROLINA CA$H as payment.
The off-campus merchants deduct only Carolina Cash, no impact on meal swipes. Meal swipes are just for ON-campus merchants --but please note that some (e.g., Marble Slab) have both ON and OFF-campus locations. Off campus, you can only use Carolina cash (or real money).
My kid is on-campus every weekend (as we are 10 hours away) and she has just the 10 meal plan. I supplement that with Carolina Cash each month, and it’s up to her to budget that “extra” money to cover breakfast items (cereal bars, juice, etc., usually from CVS), a couple of off-campus meals, etc. She doesn’t get up in time to eat a regular breakfast so it usually works for her.
One thing my D has mentioned is that kids who have a 16 or 21 meal plan eat nearly all their weekend meals on campus-- understandable since those meals are already paid for. However, it can mean they don’t join in on the Friday night dinner out, Sunday morning trip to Waffle House, etc. You can upgrade a dining plan at any time but you can only downgrade at the start of each semester.
My D is a sophomore and we made the mistake of purchasing one of the larger meal plans her first year. (Wasted a lot of $). I would recommend going with the 10 meals as you can always upgrade to a large plan. You can not, however, switch to a small plan during the year. Start small and if you find out you are eating more on campus, just call and they will upgrade you.
Thanks for the information… I have been wondering what to do for my D also. I have also been told by a friend to do the 10 meals because you can always add more and then it have gives them options with Carolina cash.
Great advice, thanks! My daughter gets up at 6:00 and jogs every morning, so skipping breakfast isn’t an option. I’m more concerned about her skipping meals if she knows they will cost “extra” – she hates spending money, so I’m leaning for the 21 meals. Incidentally, the cost of 21 meals over 16, is the equivalent of just one more meal (cost of Cocky 16 is $1679, works to $105/meal. Cost of Cocky 21 is $1783 = Cocky 16 + 1 meal). If she eats 17 meals on the 21-meal plan and eats out 4 times at other places, it is still worth it.
If you do have the 21-meal plan, why would you want any meal plan dollars? I see in the website linked by LuckyCharms that these dollars can’t be used off-campus. I notice the two restaurants my D liked across from the dorm (mentioned above) are not on the list. Seems like they’d triple their business if they accepted the Carolina Card, no?
I don’t think meal dollars and Carolina Cash are the same thing.
I think students use meal dollars for up charges (like eating at Preston is an extra $2 or so), coffee, snacks, etc. There is also something known as “second dinner” where you might have dinner at 5:30 and then get hungry again later but not necessarily for a full meal, so the meal dollars come into play. Strictly on campus to fill the gaps between meals.
My D uses her debit card at places that don’t accept Carolina Cash and also when she runs out of Carolina Cash (while I put cash in each month toward meals, she is responsible for the bulk of eating out/entertainment dining.) I think she and her friends ask for separate checks lots of times and just pay as they go (with their own money from job, savings, etc.)
Also please note that some on-campus eateries close for the weekend including the Honeycomb in the Honors dorm.
This may seem obvious but some of best advice I heard at orientation was to look at schedule when choosing meal plan. It may be that your child’s schedule will make it hard/unlikely to get lunch during swipe times. If that’s the case you may want to pick smaller number of meals. As some one mentioned above, you can change each semester and you can always up your plan.
Also, if breakfast still works the same way as a few years ago, you get 5 items for a swipe. And that can mean 5 containers of yogurt or cereal or pieces of fruit. D usually used a breakfast swipe for breakfast plus items to take with her and didn’t end up going down every morning. Might want to check that. Even though it was right down stairs (Honors) she’d rather eat while getting dressed or getting stuff together.
There’s no monetary advantage to using Carolina Cash over just plain cash other than ease of one card. If your child likes a place close to campus that won’t accept Carolina Cash (more added every year - fairly new thing) then those might be good places to get GC to send as special treat.