<p>Just a bunch of random questions... to anyone who happens to know the answers:</p>
<ul>
<li>Do you really have to eat one meal a week at Schatz?</li>
<li>Can DineX be used to buy food? aka, if you run out of meal plans, can you use Dinex?</li>
<li>How useful is Pla$d Cash?</li>
<li>Is Pla$dCash really like a debit card? Can you go to an atm-like machine and get cash off it?</li>
<li>Should I have another debit card along with Pla$dCash?</li>
</ul>
<p>thanks :)</p>
<p>Only advice I heard, from a current cmu student, is buy the cheapest meal plan.. with the most dinex... dinex I believe acts as real cash... but for food.</p>
<p>Plaidca$h is like a debit card but you can only use it at CMU. You cannot get cash from it at an ATM. I put a small amount of money on it for my daughter last year, she used it in vending machines etc, or if she had to run into the bookstore to get a folder and didn't have any money with her. I called the HUB and they said the money would carry over until next year (that obviously does not happen with Dinex).</p>
<p>Somewhat useful, but you should have a debit card too (or instead).</p>
<p>thanks, rlm919 and tooya.
rlm919, approx. how much did your daughter use last year? just so i can guess how much to put on myself...</p>
<p>i thought plaidca$h could be used on offcampus locations. thats what i was told. my tour guide said that she used her plaidca$h to get stuff from a CVS and to eat food at many restaruants off campus.</p>
<p>wow, you are right, I checked the site and you CAN use it off campus:
<a href="http://www.cmu.edu/hub/cxp/cxp_locations.html%5B/url%5D">http://www.cmu.edu/hub/cxp/cxp_locations.html</a>
So it is very similar to a debit card.</p>
<p>Anyhow last year I put $50 on before classes started and she did not run out until the spring when I put on another $30.</p>
<p>The only thing about it that I did not like was that to add to it, I had to mail a check to CMU and then they would post it to the card in a few days. It took about a week from when she said "I need money" until it was there. At my son's school I can add money to his ID card online and it is immediate. I think you can add money directly at the University Center or HUB from your debit card to the Plaid ca$h account but then why not just use the debit card instead.</p>
<p>There are places off campus you can use Plaidca$h, but you can't use it everywhere. As a student, I found it easier to simply have a bank account linked with my mom's; if I needed money, she could transfer money in. In addition to that, I also had a local account (PNC) that my parents put money in, so that I would be able to withdraw money from ATMs without fees.</p>
<p>Get the cheapest meal plan, definitely. I eat regular meals, unlike many people, and went out to eat once or twice a week (cheap places, like Panera and Boston Market and take out Chinese food) and only ran out of meal plan once or twice.</p>
<p>The meal plan runs in two week periods. Two blocks in each period can be used only at Schatz for dinner (they don't count for breakfast and brunch, which have much better food). If you don't eat at Schatz, they disappear at the end of the plan. I'm not sure if they expire one per week or two every two weeks. Thus, you don't have to eat at Schatz, but you waste blocks, which is what many people do.</p>
<p>DineX can only be used to buy food. It works like cash and is accepted at all places on campus, Subway, Eat n' Park, and Vocelli's Pizza. With the exchange rate on meal plans, blocks give you more value. There are several meal block periods in the day (Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner, Late) and you can only use one block per period, so it is better to have DineX if you eat irregularly or order lots of pizza. You can change your meal plan once per semester to a different block/dineX split during the second two week period, and it goes into effect for the third. However, the first two weeks of the semester is not very representative of what you actually need, since there is tons of free food during that time.</p>
<p>Just a note:
Your Schatz blocks can both be used in one week, and I beleive they switched to Papa Johns Pizza from Vocellis for DineX next year, but I could be wrong.</p>
<p>CampusX is also really useful for making photo copies and other small things that you need it for. I'd go with the recommendation of about $50, but if you're short on cash, just put 20 or so. Also get an ATM card. You can wait till orientation to get one, both PNC and Citizens were handing out free T-shirts to kids who signed up.</p>
<p>Normally they charge you $10-15 to open the CampusXpress account. However, I was able to put a few dollars onto my card in the kiosk in Hunt Library, which I then used to make copies. I didn't get charged for the account, and I never tried using the money anyplace else, but the 70 cents I had left disappeared at the end of the semester. I don't know if that was intentional or a loophole.</p>