<p>Wanted to ask a question of experienced students. I noticed that PNC bank seems to have a lock on campus as the defacto bank. I also read an article today about all the hidden costs and deals banks have with Universities, and how they kill the students with add on costs and penalties.</p>
<p>So what has your experience been with PNC bank? Thanks in advance for sharing.....</p>
<p>We’re in pennsylvania, and my son has PNC wallet account - set up especially for college students. Savings, check (limit on checks, but my son hasnt gotten any) and an extra savings area. Very convenient, many banks and atms locally (philadelphia)</p>
<p>He’s had no fees and no problems. We also bank with pnc, and his account is linked with ours, so that may help with any fee problems. I’ve had good service with PNC, and the local branch is good at dealing with any issues.</p>
<p>PNC seems okay, I haven’t noticed any extra or hidden fees or any fees at all. PNC seems to have branches in many states which could make it convenient for some (I saw one in Ann Arbor Michigan during my son’s graduation weekend and a branch in LA when I visited my sister). I would rather have had my regular bank, but unfortunately there’s no Chase branch on or near enough to campus. </p>
<p>Still I’ve let my daughter keep her Chase ATM card which she’s able to use all over with no problem. We also opened a PNC account for her. It takes about 3 days when I transfer funds from my bank to PNC electronically over the web. We’ll probably keep the PNC account next year but I don’t think it’s really necessary if there is another bank you prefer and can easily transfer money into your daughter’s account at home or online.</p>
<p>There is also a Citizens Bank on Main Street which wouldn’t be any problem for your daughter to keep or open an account there if it is more convenient for you.</p>
<p>Does anyone know if there is a wells fargo on main street?</p>
<p>There’s a Wells Fargo on South College Ave, accross from the Bob Carpenter Stadium. That’s a bit far from Main street, but still might be doable if she doesn’t need to take cash out too often. Your D can still use a WF card for purchases, to pay for things and probably can get extra cash at some stores in town when she makes a purchase. </p>
<p>My guess though is that a PNC account still might make sense. The last time I was in Newark, it cost me $3.50 extra to take out cash from a Main Street ATM to eat at a restaurant that didn’t take plastic.</p>
<p>My s and I each opened a PNC account with virtual wallet(for him) last year. No hidden fees, or any fees, that we’ve encountered to date. I deposit a predetermined amount of money into my PNC account at the beginning of each semester, and every three weeks transfer another predetermined amount of money into his account. This way the transfers I make to his account are immediately available, in case he finds himself in a pinch.</p>
<p>I believe there is a fee if the account balance is under a certain amount. But they use the total from both of our accounts, so we haven’t incurred any additional expenses so far.</p>
<p>PNC is great and the students accounts have no fee and no minimum balance. I have banked with PNC for many, many years and highly recommend it. In the Philly area, they have the most ATMs around.</p>
<p>OK. That sounds like a ringing endorsement for PNC. I will explore how hard it is to transfer money from my Ca. account at WF, to a pnc account via online. If it is easy, I will do it. Thanks…</p>
<p>We set up a virtual wallet acct for my daughter with PNC last year before she started Udel. She only got hit with one fee when she needed cash last minute and was on Main Street. There are lots of PNC ATMs around campus. Another good feature with PNC is that if you overdraft from your checking account, they automatically move funds from your savings account with no fee.</p>
<p>socaldad: We opted not to open a PNC account at UD. There are no branches around here (at home) and it seemed that the transfers to her account wouldn’t be so fast (if I remember correctly).</p>
<p>We use Chase, as you do, and I opened a new account for her. She mostly uses her debit card for purchases (within her allotted budget) - she gets a text when her balance goes below a predetermined amount so no overdraws. Whe needs cash, she can get cash back at Happy Harry’s (I think they are now Walgreen’s on Main St.) when she makes a purchase (and she always seems to need things from there).</p>
<p>Online transfers are fast, as you know, within Chase. </p>
<p>She has had absolutely no complaints with this system.</p>
<p>Prescient question, socal dad. </p>
<p><a href=“On Campus, New Deals With Banks - The New York Times”>On Campus, New Deals With Banks - The New York Times; </p>
<p>I’ve downloaded but haven’t yet read the whole report, but a chart shows that PNC has 23 University/ Banking relationships with over 244,000 students covered. I haven’t seen or experienced some of the abusess or negative effects because we haven’t used the card in those ways. But I’ll be looking carefully now!</p>
<p>LINYMOM, it takes about 3 days for funds from my Chase acct to be available for my D in her PNC account after an online transfer. Not fast enough for real emergencies, but the perfect “stick” to get her to think about in advance and budget what she will need, and to regularly check the balance of her PNC account online. Then she still has the Chase card for emergencies.</p>
<p>That is an interesting article but PNC is not mentioned in it. We have not experienced any fees at all. You can set up low balance notifications to avoid overdrafts. It is important with all bank accounts to understand overdraft fees etc. and avoid them. When I was looking into this, I found that most checking accounts charge a monthly fee unless there is a relatively large minimum balance. Also, they have transaction fees for ATM withdrawals and checks over a certain number per month. That’s why PNC student checking is a good deal, they have no minimum balance or transaction fees for ATMs, checks, etc. You do have to use a PNC ATM though. It sounds like they have plenty on campus. The lack of ATMs for Chase may be an issue depending on whether your D will want to have actual cash or just rely on her ATM card for purchases. My experience is that D wants to have cash in her pocket as some things can’t be purchased with an ATM card.</p>
<p>I don’t know about time to transfer into PNC from other banks since I use PNC for my personal banking and it works instantly. You may want to give her a credit card for emergency use, as well as to begin to build up her credit rating.</p>
<p>Check with your home bank to see whether they will charge you for transferring funds to a PNC bank account and whether it is easy to do.</p>
<p>My DS was sent the mailing on UD and PNC, and it mentions your ID card becomes your ATM card once you link it. Do you think this is a good idea or should they be separate?</p>
<p>We don’t have a PNC account now, but there are several branches close by that I could just deposit cash. I use TD bank, but they charge for non TD bank ATMs.</p>
<p>jbs: Re: UD ID being your bank card. Depends on your kid. I wouldn’t worry about it with my DD. With my DS, that’s another story.</p>
<p>mhc: 3 days. Yes, that’s what I remembered. With no PNC around here, the whole thing was going to be inconvenient. That’s why we stuck with Chase.</p>
<p>My daughter has a Bank of America account and was planning to keep it but we will be switching her over to PNC. I have a PNC account in Jersey and have no issues with them. My account is minimally used but at least I’ll have a venue to immediately switch funds over for her and let her use the ATM’s free of charge. there are tons of PNC’s in New Jersey and most folks I know that use them are happy with them. </p>
<p>Do any of you guys that are already at the school feel the huge need to link the student ID with your ATM card? My daughter kind of feels like she’d just as soon carry both cards but I’d be interested to hear what other’s experiences are.</p>
<p>My D did not link the two cards. I’m not sure there is much of an advantage to doing so … and if the ID is linked to money and she loses her ID, it is a double concern. She carries her ID basically at all times, so we felt it was a bit safer to just keep it as ID only.</p>