vaebn_kehn

I'm an incoming freshman, and am wondering which bank to open an account with. Any suggestions as to proximity to NU, account types, specific banks, etc would be extremely helpful and very much appreciated.

EDIT: lol - I just realized that there is already a thread about this, just two below >.< Feel free to post your suggestions or laugh at me anyway

Purposeful1

even though the guy below suggests other banks, I'd say for an incoming freshman it's a lot easier to go with US bank. That way, you have a branch ON campus as well as us bank (aka free) ATMs all over campus.

The "check card" functions as a debit card technically, but for all practical purposes it works like a regular VISA (in other words, it deducts the money directly from your account when you spend it, but it works as a credit card rather than a debit card).

You won't get any sort of good interest rate from US bank (if any), and overdrafts are moderately steep (not as bad as some, and you get 1 'freebie'), but it's not too bad of a tradeoff for the average college student. What I did is keep my World Savings/Wachovia savings account, and then just transferred money as needed to my US bank account. Works pretty well.

sschmidt1231

I got a US Bank account upon getting into NU and its pretty easy ... but the thing is, if you plan on living South Campus you are right in the heart of downtown Evanston pretty much and have access to all those banks. My suggestion would be to research banks like Waa-Mu, Chase, US Bank, and Bank of America (those are the ones within the closet proximity to south campus) and see what works better for you. Having your wild card attached to your US Bank account isn't really useful because whenever you would have your ID you would also have your debit card...so its really just sort of redundant.

A good site for comparing banks is Consumer Reviews - Viewpoints
Bank of America Review - Online Brokerage Reviews - Viewpoints
US Bank Review - Misc. Finance Reviews - Viewpoints

Those are some links for starters where you can read what customers think of banking.

arbiter213

That part about wildcard and debit isn't true. I frequently carry my wildcard without my wallet. I LOVE having a single card I need for cash, ID, and food on campus.

vaebn_kehn

Do you think it would be easier to just keep my money in a different account during the summer, then create my account at Northwestern and transfer funds in, or actually create the account now during the summer?

Purposeful1

it's really simple to do it when you arrive--i wouldn't sweat it over the summer.