Opening A Checking Account

Colleges and Universities A-Z Northwestern University
1

Hi!

I’m thinking of opening a checking account for college and was just wondering if any current or recently graduated students could share some information about what banks have ATMs on campus and which are the easiest for students at NU to access?

Thanks in advance!!

2

I’m an upcoming student myself but Purple Prep says US Bank is the only/main bank on campus:

“By linking it [your Wildcard] to a U.S. Bank checking account, you can make your Wildcard double as an ATM card. In addition to several on-campus ATMs, U.S. Bank branches are located inside Norris University Center on the Evanston campus (847-475-3025) and in Northwestern Memorial Hospital’s Galter Pavilion on the Chicago campus.”

:slight_smile:

3

My 2 Wildcats opened U S Bank accounts - and neither had any complaints that I am aware of, but you can use GoogleMaps and see that there are other banks with ATMs and branches in Evanston.

4

I think only US Bank has only ATMs, and they’re the only bank on campus, with a small office in Norris, but there are numerous banks with ATMs and/or branches in Evanston (mostly downtown Evanston, in terms of nearby places). I don’t think it would be too much of a hassle to go to downtown Evanston, except maybe in winter if you live on north campus, in order to go to the bank. And if you’re willing to eat the extra fees, you can always use the US Bank ATMs if you have your money in another bank.

I personally switched to US Bank before getting to NU, but once getting there found it unnecessary that I had switched.

5

Or open an account at a place where you can use any ATM for free. Schwab is one but there are others that have been mentioned on this board.

Here are some other discussions on the topic:

http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parent-cafe/1784604-first-checking-account-p1.html
http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parent-cafe/1790188-where-to-open-first-checking-account-p1.html
http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parent-cafe/1862511-wells-fargo-or-bank-of-america-p1.html

6

As a correction to potentially confusing wording in my previous post, the post should start with:

“I think only US Bank has ATMs, and they’re…”

The “only” before ATMs should not be there.