<p>DD has the 16+ meal plan. She went for dinner last night in Russell House. Wasn't that hungry and saw a bag of fruit for $6 that looked good. She wasn't given the option of using her meal swipe, they only asked if she wanted to use Carolina cash or Bonus bucks. What gives? Also what are Bonus bucks?</p>
<p>Bonus bucks are extra money they “give” you based on meal plan and your year. Can be used if you go over your meal allotment or for extras. For freshmen, it’s $20. Plus with her plan she has $100 extra dollars to use as she wants. I thinks this is also counted as bonus bucks and does not carry over to new semester.</p>
<p>Be sure you go to dining page read up on how bonus bucks are used. For instance, if you want a snack in the afternoon in the dinner time frame and go get some chips and drink, if you don’t tell them any different, it will be a meal swipe and you really haven’t gotten the max for your money. You can tell them for stuff like that to use the bonus bucks or Carolina cash. You want to use bonus bucks up first since if you don’t use it during the semester it just goes away. Money put on Carolina card carries over.</p>
<p>Also note that the new week starts on Friday am…and you lose whatever you haven’t used that prior week in terms of swipes.</p>
<p>Not sure why she wasn’t able to use her meal swipe for purchase. Tell her to be sure and ask next time…maybe they just assumed it wasn’t intended as her “supper” or had something to do with it being the first weekend. You can always call. At the end of the semester they give students a way to use up bonus or flex money buy letting them buy cases of water, snacks etc. We did that and they took it off Carolina card instead. Hubby had to call and get them to change it so they can make mistakes!</p>
<p>Thank you, scmom12. I tried to call on my lunch hour today, but got a voice mail message. Didn’t leave a message since I work in a doctor’s office and can’t take phone calls while at work. You are probably right that the person ringing her up probably didn’t think that a bag of fruit would be a dinner for anyone. Will tell DD to ask in the future if she can’t use her meal swipe if she won’t be getting anything else.</p>
<p>Perhaps it was a new cashier? That’s very odd. They always ask how you plan on paying or meal plan? If that happens again, just have her say meal plan.</p>
<p>It’s also possible the the bag of fruit went over the meal plan amount and they were asking her what the remainder (probably a small amount of cents) should be paid in.</p>
<p>I’m not sure what the numbers are on meal plan amounts this year, as I’m studying abroad and not on campus, but it’s probably the latter. I would say have her check her balance on VIP, but that’s no longer the case. I assume it can be checked on SSC, though.</p>
<p>According to this: [Dining</a> Services, University of South Carolina](<a href=“Carolina Food Co. - Carolina Food Co. | University of South Carolina”>Carolina Food Co. - Carolina Food Co. | University of South Carolina) Dinner is $6.76, so if she got water or anything else with the fruit, my guess is that it went over. (Which, it should be known that for whatever reason, Russel House charges for a cup of water, which in my opinion is kind of ridiculous considering that it’s a college campus dining option, but that’s another story.)</p>