<p>Is signing up for an PNC account really necessary? D has a debit card with Wells Fargo that she does fine with when purchasing things. Will she be fine with the debit card and lioncash?</p>
<p>You don’t have to. I personally bank with Suntrust, but I’m going to make the switch to PNC because there are no Suntrusts in State College.</p>
<p>She’ll be fine. The only advantage to PNC is you can link Lioncash directly to their bank account, but even that isn’t all that vital.</p>
<p>If you open a PNC account it can be linked to the Penn State ID card and can be used as a debit card at all PNC ATMs. The student only has to carry around one card.</p>
<p>After you link, can you use the id card to buy groceries ?</p>
<p>I believe the ID card with lion cash on it can be used at over 200 locations in the area. If it’s linked to a PNC acct. you can get cash at any of the PNC ATMs because it functions as a debit/ATM card.</p>
<p>Wait, we are not talking about lion cash. My question was, If I swipe the id card at Walmart, will it automatically take the money out of PNC bank account ? </p>
<p>OR Can we only use the card at PNC ATM’s JUST to get cash ?</p>
<p>If the id-card can’t act as your debit card, what’s the point of linking ?</p>
<p>There’s lion cash, there’s meal points then there’s PNC bank balance. </p>
<p>Lion cash is for laundry and other stuff. You get 10% discount if you buy food. </p>
<p>Meal Points(which is actually real money) is for food. You can pay using meal points on campus.</p>
<p>If your PSU ID is linked with PNC account. you can insert the ID card at any PNC ATM, put the new PIN # you made while linking your account and take out some cash. This does NOT mean you don’t have to carry your debit card. Your debit card is used to buy groceries and other stuff at places that don’t accept lion cash.</p>
<p>More info: <a href=“https://www.pnc.com/webapp/sec/Blank.do?siteArea=/PNC/Home/Personal/Student+Banking/FAQ-PSU#q1[/url]”>https://www.pnc.com/webapp/sec/Blank.do?siteArea=/PNC/Home/Personal/Student+Banking/FAQ-PSU#q1</a></p>
<p>So is the only way to get cash on campus is thru a PNC atm?</p>
<p>I’m sure you could use a debit card for whatever bank you want and get cash back at on campus locations too.</p>
<p>There are more banks in State College than just about anything. Plenty of ATMs. The ones on campus are PNC. </p>
<p>Lioncash is money someone deposits into your id+ account. That money is spent just like a debit card, in virtually every store in town. You can go out to eat, buy gas, buy books, go to WalMart. When you pay for food at on campus food vendors, you get a slight discount for using Lioncash instead of a bank debit card. There are other slight discounts throughout the year offered by various stores. Your id+ card has a LIoncash account; you can choose to fill it or not, but it’s very simple and fast for,parents to do,that online. If you don’t put money in it, it just sits there. The funds stay there until they are used.</p>
<p>Meal points are the mandatory dining plan for all residential students. There are levels (1-5) that correspond to more or fewer points. If your choice is to buy a dining hall meal in a Commons, in order of actual cash cost it would be mealpoints, Lioncash, real cash (ascending order). Meal points roll over fall to spring but NOT spring to summer or fall.</p>
<p>Tying your Lioncash to PNC is simplest to think of as overdraft protection. If you are buying books, and you have $100 in Lioncash but not a PNC linked account, if the books are $120 you need the difference. If you have a linked PNC account, that $20 will automatically be drawn from the pnc account. This is why neither of my students (who already had pnc accounts) chose to link them. You can empty your bank account if you aren’t careful. You don’t need a PNC account, and there’s not a giant advantage.</p>
<p>I am not real happy that the University has allowed PNC to try to monopolize the student banking business, and I refuse to give in to it! There are plenty of other banks that have ATMs downtown - you don’t need to bank with PNC. My daughter will keep her Fulton Bank account and use their ATM by Chipotle off of College Avenue. I will load up her ID card with her college meal plan and a little bit of Lion Cash for doing laundry, and then she will have her separate Fulton Bank debit card for everything else.</p>
<p>I felt the same way and my son stayed with Northwest Savings Bank (though now he uses Ally which reimburses ATM fees). Since then I have had to straighten out several problems that my elderly parents caused with their checking account and I can’t tell you how thankful I am that they bank at PNC (in Chicago). The people at the local branch have been beyond helpful. :)</p>
<p>I haven’t been there in awhile but I’m assuming you can use any debit card at a pnc bank ATM just with a fee like every other bank does??</p>
<p>That being said, pnc is the best bank I’ve ever belonged to. They reimburse ATMfees when you use other banks ATMs, they are open sat and Sun, and are always happy to help.</p>