On-Campus Banking

Parents Forum
1

<p>We would like our college-bound child to maintain her banking account where we can monitor her funds (via online banking) and have the option of moving money to her account in the event of any problem arising (car breaks down, emergency).</p>

<p>The "chain" banks where we live (Wells Fargo, US Bank) are not the same as the "chain" banks where our child will be going to school (Bank of America, Peoples Bank). We thought that she could do her banking via ATM -- e.g., deposit checks from work and withdraw cash via an ATM. But the banks near campus will levy a surcharge for each ATM transaction.</p>

<p>How do other families handle cross-country banking? Thanks!</p>

2

<p>Our kids have accounts in our bank (for the reasons you mentioned above), and do their banking through ATM. There are fees ($2 per transaction), but we think it's worth it.</p>

3

<p>You might want to try PayPal -- I used PayPal to transfer money to my son when he was in college, and they offer debit cards. The other nice thing is that PayPal pays interest at money market rates on your funds.</p>

4

<p>Both my kids are 2000 miles away. One is using a credit union that provides services to the university students. The other has a local bank. They have ATM cards and student VISA accounts through their own institutions. D has her work-study paychecks direct deposited. From my checking account here at home I've added each as a payee so I can use the bill payer service on-line to transfer funds to them to pay room/board, books, etc. Transactions post to their accounts within 1-3 business days. We don't monitor their funds. If they blow it all, they'll be coming on home for good.</p>

5

<p>We are struggling with this same problem!</p>

<p>our daughter's account at our local bank is a "student account", one of the benefits is no ATM charges. The catch is you have to collect your ATM receipts and mail them in, then your account is credited - I thought she would ever go to the trouble to do all that,but maybe your child would.</p>

<p>Our situation is complicated by the fact that DD won't be 18 until after several weeks of college. Today (it changes often) the plan is to have her do what Ngnmm is doing, and open an account in a local bank, either while we are up there so we can sign too, or just let her open it later, after she gets a job and has paychecks to deposit.</p>

<p>Our other dilemma, that I have asked advice about here is credit cards. She will be in an isolated place, and will need to do online shopping, so we are trying decide what credit card to get as well.</p>

6

<p>Cangel,
My kids use the visa checkcard (debit) which is linked to their checking account for online purchases. Works like a credit card to merchants but kids learn to be sure they have the funds before ordering! It is available for 'student' accounts. My 16 year old has used it for purchases while abroad.</p>

7

<p>Debit cards do not build a credit rating. I suggest that your child also have a credit card for occasional use...You don't want your child to graduate from college and not have any credit history...</p>

8

<p>Many employers, including on-campus work-study, provide direct deposit of paychecks into the students checking account, wherever located. It is REALLY helpful to keep that local account, for the last-minute emergency calls for $$$, then you can just make a deposit at your local bank for your child.(I always keep a couple hundred dollars CASH at home, for these calls!) My son's school will cash checks up to $50, I assume for free. They have an ATM too, which will charge a fee.</p>

9

<p>We chose to have our son set up a checking account in the bank branch which is located in the Student Union. We deposited enough money each term to handle books and spending money. The one time he began running low on money we merely electronically transfered the cash needed from our investment account and our advisor waived the fee.</p>

10

<p>Mominva - I have also heard conflicting reports of how safe it is to use check cards online - whether or not, you get the same protection against merchandise not delivered, or delivered broken, airlines going bankrupt, etc. Also, if thieves get the child's check card, they can empty the entire bank account, I think.</p>

<p>One of my partners raised an interesting point with me about college kids going far from home and credit cards - his children are 30ish now and married, but when they were college kids, he put their names a credit card with a $10000 credit limit - then threatened them with pain of death not to use it. This was a true emergency credit card. He and his wife traveled together a lot, and like us, had no family living close to them. He was concerned that if something dire should happen, particularly if affected both parents, that the kids would be adults, but with no means of support until literally, the estate was settled. He was especially concerned about the older child being able to get home, or provide money for the younger sibling.
If one had financial aid, it probably wouldn't matter, but it got me thinking - we are full payers, and if something happened to us my daughter couldn't pay her tuition bill - even if we had an insurance policy, she would need advice on how to get that money, but she does know how to use a credit card.</p>

11

<p>I am struggling with this issue as well. Last year, D went to a college that had a Bank of America ATM on campus. She has her account at a BofA branch 5 minutes from our house. I have a small account with this bank and move money into her account as required. It worked very well.</p>

<p>I had planned to do the same with S, who is off to college this fall and has a BofA account, too. Although he is going to a major city, for some reason BofA has no ATMs in the immediate area. And the two banks represented on his campus are not banks that are in our community. </p>

<p>I contacted BofA and told them I didn't want to cancel S's accountwith them (he's still 17) but was concerned about "foreign" ATM fees. They were able to set up a waiver of BofA's standard fees for using "foreign" ATMs on his account. The waiver is good for 365 days and can be renewed. BofA did say that the two local banks on campus may still charge a small fee from their end. Long story short--he'll still have fees but basically cut in half. I guess it doesn't hurt to ask!</p>

<p>Once we're on campus, I also plan to check with the local banks to see if they'd consider any waiver although I don't expect a positive response....but hey, you never know.</p>

12

<p>D has an account at Bank of America at school. Students can open the account with $25, there are no fees or minimum deposits for account because she has direct deposit for work study pay checks. She has free online banking with bill payment, She uses her visa check card (she does a lot of shopping on line and has never had a problem). </p>

<p><a href="http://www.bankofamerica.com/studentbanking/index.cfm?template=stb_college_banking_kit%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.bankofamerica.com/studentbanking/index.cfm?template=stb_college_banking_kit&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>Student can also get their visa credit card through them.</p>

<p>we have a linked account through my credit union so she can get money instantly in the event of an emergency, if she has to use the atm, the fee is $1.00 but a small price to pay.</p>

13

<p>We've been very happy with B of A, parent and student accounts. B of A bought a local bank where D ended up going to school, so she has no ATM fees for using the nearest ATM. The way B of A is buying up banks, it should have a branch everywhere in no time at all!</p>

<p>Can transfer $$ into her account online, which has come in handy even when she is at home (if I need to borrow cash from her, I can repay her by online transfer).</p>

14

<p>ellemenope;
I hope you are right about BofA ultimately being everywhere.
I was amazed to discover they are not in New Orleans, at least nowhere near Tulane!</p>

15

<p>Curioser, we don't have BofA here either - I don't know if it is a Southern thing, or has something to do with the banking codes in individual states? Anyone know about that? LA state law hearkens back to Napoleonic Code, so they have some different laws than many states.
Wachovia is taking over around here - they need to fight it ourt with Bof A.</p>

16

<p>My D has never had a checking account before, I just openned one for her at a branch of my (national) bank to deposit pay from her summer jobs.</p>

<p>An approach which I'm mulling over, is to have D open an account at the local bank, but keep her national bank account, atm card etc. Then she can deposit checks from her national account into her local account for use at the atm etc. Since there will be a $1.50 fee at the local bank for using the national atm, she can take out $100 or $200 from the atm instead of $20, and deposit the rest of the cash into the local account.</p>

<p>I may not be able to monitor spending this way (how much can you anyway with an atm?) but I can at least always replenish funds online. </p>

<p>Even though they don't build credit history with a debt card...I'm fairly sure at this point that all she'd be likely to build up would be negative history. I'll give it a while and see how she does managing these accounts, reconciing etc.</p>

17

<p>a time-consuming but free way of dealing with this might be ING direct You and your child could open an account together, and link it to your account and one she has in a bank near her school. Then you could transfer money through the ING account from you to her. It does take a business day or two for the money to get from one account to the next, so this is a slow solution...but no fees! And, if you keep the money in ING, you get more than 3% interest, which is pretty amazing for a savings account. I've been very pleased with them.</p>

18

<p>Money management is an issue on which my S has "declared independence"...he wants to choose his own bank, and get his own credit card (he currently has his own account at my bank, his own cash card thru my credit union, and a credit card w/his name on it, but it's my account). He says, w/respect to the credit card, that my account (w/his name on the card) won't build him a credit history. True. My reaction: You're 18, DS, and you can do it if you want to w/out my permission. I'm personally opposed to credit cards for people w/no income source (and at the moment I am his only income source and I refuse to be listed as an "employer"), but if you can find a bank to give you a credit card when you have no income, I can't/won't stop you. (And of course, the credit card companies being what they are, someone will offer him a credit card, I'm sure). </p>

<p>I told him I fully expect him to get in trouble with it. Just about everyone does. (I did, too, with my first credit cards. Thankfully, never bad enough to affect my credit rating...but bad enough where I had zero money beyond what was needed to pay my minimum payments). I will not bail him out of a big credit card balance problem. If he wants to take the risk, he can--it'll be a good learning experience for him, and who knows, maybe he'll be among the tiny minority who doesn't run up uncomfortably big balances.</p>

<p>As for checking/debit: If he wants to use a local bank, again, he can. But I am not going to make it inconvenient for me to give him money. Right now it's very convenient for me to transfer money into both his cash card account and his checking account. I can do the transfers online, for free. I will not go to a separate bank just because he wants the feeling of independence that being at a bank separate from mine gives him...by the way: I do not and never have monitored his accounts. For me, that's a privacy issue and until/unless he messes up in a way that affects my credit (unlikely), his account info is his to see, not mine. So, I told him he can do as he chooses...but to keep in mind that if chooses a separate bank, money from me will take 10 days to two weeks to go from a request for money to available funds...I'll write him a check and mail it; he'll deposit it and his bank will make him wait for the check to clear. If that's what he wants to do, on the "altar" of his own independence, that's his choice. But I'll be switched if I will agree to regular trips to a different bank just so he can feel more independence!</p>

<p>I think the end result is that he'll use 3 accounts...the cash/debit card account thru the credit union; a check account in my bank, and an account in a local bank, and then he will be able to move funds around as is most convenient for him. As for the credit card, I don't know what he'll do. I suspect he'll get a card in his own name, and will run up uncomfortable balances, and will experience the "pain" almost all of us experience as we learn about how very easy it is to spend more than we should w/a credit card, and then have to "pay the piper" when the bills come due!</p>

19

<p>B of A isn't there in the south? I know that one of the big early mergers was NCNB (out of North Carolina) and B of A. (Actually, I think NCNB bough B of A and changed its name to B of A, but I can't keep up).</p>

20

<p>Not our end of the South, stops at the FLA state line.</p>