<p>Hey there. Just wondering if anyone has any thoughts about the on campus banking. From what I've seen, it looks like PNC is the primary on campus bank for students. Did a little research. Was wondering if there is something I'm not seeing here, as far as fees or other hidden issues. It seems one of the advantages is linking the bank account to the student ID? I'm encouraging D to do most of her day to day purchasing on a cash basis (rather than swiping a card), as it feels more like spending "money," may make it easier to keep herself on a monthly budget, so I'm not sure how much I care about the link to the student ID, and it seems to come with a debit card anyway. Any pros / cons to PNC and/or experience using any other bank in the campus community. I think a con for us would be that there are no PNC branches in our home city, at least not that I am aware of.</p>
<p>My D went down with a Chase checking account and linked her work study direct deposit to that. It was a major, major pain in the butt because there were several times when the ATMs were out of service and she couldn’t access her money but could have if she had had a PNC account and gone to the branch. She has a job lined up for the fall and we are adamant about making sure that she has a PNC account for sophomore year so she can more easily make deposits. My D is a saver and there ends up being a serious chunk of change that we don’t want laying around. This may not be an issue for anyone not working on or near campus.</p>
<p>It’s a concern of mine too. I like to be able to transfer money into my students’ bank accounts on line from my Chase account, it’s very useful when they need money quickly. But there are no Chase branches near UD or ATMs as far as I can tell (other than NYCE or STAR types that accept all cards but for a fee). I was thinking of maybe opening an account at B of A and doing the same, but the nearest ATM is at Brookside Plaza/Chestnut Hill Plaza and I’m not sure how far away that is from campus.</p>
<p>Many colleges allow parents to transfer money online into student’s account. I was hoping that if UD had that perhaps I could transfer money into her student account so that she might even be able to transfer from that to a PNC account. But I’ve been trying to check out those possibilities and haven’t found any information. It looks to me like PNC has a monopolistic and pretty sweet deal between it and UDel.</p>
<p>Then again, there is this option I found online:</p>
<p>Between Your PNC Accounts and Your non-PNC Accounts</p>
<p>Move money from your accounts elsewhere to your PNC (checking, savings, or money market) account without leaving the house. You can move money in and out of your account in as little as 3 business days, make a one-time transfer or even set up a recurring transfer for up to a year in advance.</p>
<p>» Experience an easier way to move & send money. Sign on to PNC Online Banking, click Transfer Funds, and try it today.</p>
<p>Yes, definitely want an account easy to both deposit into and, when needed, get money out of. D will have a campus job and I will encourage her to direct deposit that paycheck, and to pay herself a monthly “allowance,” except for big purchases, for which she could use the debit card. I guess if she needs to access money when she is at home, she can do so with an ATM fee, too bad the primary on campus bank is not really a national one. Anyone know anything about fees for PNC? If they have them, they are well hidden on the website. I’m assuming there is something … because they are not advertising it as totally fee free. Perhaps we will need to pursue that issue in person at NSO or move-in.</p>
<p>There is one in our town, and one right on Main St in Newark…</p>
<p>My DD went with a Chase account. She doesn’t like to keep a lot of cash on her, but when she needed it, she could get cash back with a purchase on debit card at Happy Harry’s (on Main St) - and she always needs something at the drug store. Transfering was always easy on my end on-line.</p>
<p>This could be problematic if your dorm is not near Main St (but she was near it last year and will be again soph year).</p>
<p>DD has not expressed one word about changing this set-up for the upcoming school year.</p>
<p>We wouldn’t be planning to change if not for the fact that at least three times the campus ATM system was down when she absolutely had to have a certain amount of cash. Daughter doesn’t want to deal with that again. That’s very smart about Happy Harry’s LINYMOM, I don’t think my D realized that she could have gotten cash back with her Chase card. She will be living right on Main Street this year, so that would work out well.</p>
<p>I wonder what the cash back limit is on Happy Harry’s. I’ll look into that during NSO plus a joint Citizens Bank account that we can both access online so that I can deposit money here and she can get at there.</p>
<p>I currently have a Citizens Bank account but I was planning on opening a joint PNC account - it seems easier with PNC right on campus.</p>
<p>Yes, SD it would be easier to go with PNC given the location and convenience of i-card use…if I also had a PNC branch nearby where I could deposit money into an account for her. But I don’t, the nearest is in Manhattan. So the alternatives are: 1) Go with Chase as LINYMOM has; 2) open a joint Citizens account and have her use that, which would still be pretty convenient but not allow i-card use; or 3) Pre-fund or let her take money out of either a Chase or CB account and put it into a PNC account for the convenient locations and i card use.</p>
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<p>It’s not a lot - will ask DD when I talk to her tomorrow (she’s away at summer job now). A couple of times she needed cash for bus ticket home and she had to go to Happy Harry’s a couple of times (UD student run bus - cash only - great if you live on Long Island or need to get to Penn Sta or Grand Central in NYC - there’s a whole separate thread on this).</p>
<p>I will be a freshman in the fall and I have a PNC account through UD. This is my first bank account and I love it so far. UD students can open an account by paying 25 dollar to activate a debit card and this handy program called “Virtual Wallet.” </p>
<p>VW is a technology that is really convenient for parents but especially for college students. Students can set bill deadlines, see daily/weekly/monthly spendings and saving on his or her debit card, and also save money for short or long term savings. Also parents can transfer money into s or d’s Debit card from any banks. </p>
<p>I definitely recommend opening a PNC bank account for UD students since there are tons of PNC ATM machines and it’s just more convenient. </p>
<p>Any student can open up a PNC bank account at nso.</p>
<p>A slight, but hopefully useful digression. You can make online tranfers from any savings or checking account to load up your student’s UDel Flex account. This is not the same as a PNC card which can be used around campus too, but it’s still useful. The Flex account can only be used on campus, but it works off the Student ID card at a lot of places: at all dining locations, the University Bookstore, the Perkins Student Center, the Trabant University Center, campus box offices, the student health center and Parking Services, laundry machines etc. </p>
<p>A fuller list of where Flex can be used is here: [University</a> of Delaware: Flex](<a href=“http://www.udel.edu/ud1flex/where.html]University”>University of Delaware: Flex)</p>
<p>Just to test it out I just transferred $25 to my D’s Flex account and it worked.</p>
<p>Is the Flex account different than the dining hall plan? Are we effectively funding three accounts?: dining meals/points, flex account dollars, and debit card dollars? </p>
<p>Does the Flex account create a bias to purchase books from the University book store rather than the stores in town?</p>
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<p>This seems complicated but you will get the hang of it. The dining hall plan includes # of meals/points, depending on which one you pick. Then there are flex dollars. As mentioned up-thread, simple to transfer on line from your bank account (up to you how much you want your D/S to use this) If you are using the on-campus bank, then I think your UDID is also your debit card, right? Then that would be a separate account than flex (not sure why you would need to fund both). I believe my DD uses the flex for laundry (just swipe the card). Not sure what else (but, you know what - I think I need to ask her!).</p>
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<p>Not at all. We order the books online ahead of time. The first semester we ordered from one of the bookstores in town. Second semester, we got smart and ordered from Amazon (much more cost-effective). In both situations, DD sold them back to a local store after the semester.</p>
<p>LINYMOM, you brought to mind a question regarding text books. Last semester, my son at UMich, rented his textbooks (I forgot where but can ask him, pretty sure it was online). I turned out to be a great deal, the books were in good condition, cheap and at the end of the semester he just returned them. Do you know of anything like that at UDel?</p>
<p>In general, there used to be a time when I felt students should get new textbooks so as to mark them up without being influenced by the former owner. But a lot of times that’s just not necessary. You can get hardly used textbooks or now rent them and/or the professors give out many handouts. I’ve also read about downloading textbooks (Barnes & Noble has a downloadable laptop app for it <a href=“http://barnesandnoble.com/nookstudy/college/index.asp[/url]”>http://barnesandnoble.com/nookstudy/college/index.asp</a>).</p>
<p>There are so many options these days that buying textbooks from either the college or in town bookstore seems a much less attractive idea. I wonder whether a Kindle or Nook might be a sound investment.</p>
<p>The UD bookstore will start this year renting many, but not all, textbooks. I believe they will charge a rental fee of about 50% of the books actual cost. On-line rental systems might be cheaper (I have never done this). I believe they will rent both new and used books. Good luck.</p>
<p>We got our D’s books from Lieberman’s the first semester and the bookstore on campus second semester (because it was close to the dorm). Sold both sets back and did very well on resale. This semester she has a literature class, so we’re downloading them onto her kindle for free because they’re in the public domain. Otherwise, she’s getting used books that she will resell, except for the art conservation handbooks. Those she will keep in her private library.</p>
<p>mhc48 - you mentioned making transfers from your Chase account. Chase online banking has a feature called person-to-person quick pay that I use to transfer money to my daughter’s BofA account (at another college). When you post an online transfer, the Chase system sends an email to the recipient, who then has to retrieve the payment. Once the recipient is set up as an account in the system, regardless of what bank he may use, the money is available immediately. No fees and works like a charm. I’ll probably have my UD daughter set up a PNC account and make transfers from my Chase account with this service.</p>