<p>I’m wondering what the best way to handle money is. I’m thinking about opening a checking account at the local college bank. Since there aren’t any of the same banks here where I live, I was thinking of having my D convert her savings account into a checking account. Then she could write checks out of her ‘home’ account, and deposit it into her ‘school’ account, and then she could access that money with a debit card. I don’t want her to just take a debit card from our local bank because she’ll be hit with fees every time she withdraws money. And obviously she can’t really only have a ‘school’ account because she needs a place to park her summer job earnings.</p>
<p>How have others handled this? I’d also seen a suggestion that you can just send money through paypal, but there are fees for that as well, I believe, on the recipients end.</p>
<p>She can do that, but there are advantages of using a bank that has branches in your home town as well as college. It could also be very useful if your local bank allowed outgoing ACH transfers - it handy to transfer money between accounts. Debit cards are great. There are many banks who refund all or some of the fees charged by other banks. You don’t need a physical ‘bank’ at the college. In addition, my son also has a credit card. Many of the internet banks like e-trade, ING (savings and electric orange checking), Wachovia, BOA, WAMU are very decent. Earlier my son had ING savings account and Wachovia (at School). Now we have Wachovia in our hometown as well.</p>
<p>All you really need is the ability to do online banking and preferably a bank that allows some ATM withdrawals where they eat the fees. We have a joint account with our son, not so that we can see what he’s spending, but because it makes it easy for us to transfer money into his account.</p>
<p>We did exactly what you are suggesting. D uses the bank on campus, which unfortunately doesn’t have any branches in our state, never mind our town. When we need to replenish her funds, we just send her a check, which she deposits in her account. (We also did this to avoid ATM fees.)</p>
<p>Her school also has an account attached to her student ID, which she uses for laundry, bookstore, etc., and is accepted at quite a number of local restaurants. That one’s easy to replenish - it takes credit cards!</p>
<p>I use three banks, one is a credit union where we have our mortgage & joint checking account and savings ( w/H), credit unions often belong to a consortium where you can use other atms without fees.Is that available?</p>
<p>yeah - who writes checks anymore? who uses cash?</p>
<p>my three youngest bank online - they have direct deposit, a checking and savings and they are all joint accounts with me. They generally keep their money in savings, transferring it to checking as needed and use their debit card. It is so easy to get cashback at Walmart or nearly any grocery store - yes they have been known to buy gum and get $50 back. Their bank reimbursed $2/transaction and $15/month for atm fees so using an ATM is simple.</p>
<p>Since they have joint accounts with me I can see how their funds are holding up and transfer money if needed. My college senior has a credit card (joint with me) with an $800 limit - just because she is 600 miles away. She hardly ever uses it and doesn’t keep a balance.</p>
<p>OP - There are periodic threads on this topic. You might consider searching the CC Parents Forum for them.</p>
<p>Whether your student requires checks and/or cash largely depends on the school s/he attends. Both of my D’s schools had some functions that required cash (for deliveries and off-campus purchases) and checks. It’s not amusing to put a Study Abroad deposit check into a FedEx package, and then get the package back because the FedEx delivery guy couldn’t contact D and wouldn’t put the package in her campus mailbox. (You’d think the Study Abroad Office would accept cash, or money order, or credit card or debit card, or accept payment from the university cash card – nope. YMMV.) So check with a couple of students at the school.</p>
<p>S has a checking acct/debit card in a bank here at home so I can deposit money in it when necessary. This represents his summer earnings and spending money that he can use on whatever he wants. We assume checks will be used only for things (fees, dues, etc.) that he can’t pay for by cash or debit card. He also has a credit card to be used for educational expenses (books, needed clothes, school supplies, on-line purchases) that we pay. Campus ATM is an independent one that charges a fee no matter who uses it. Our bank had a one time $10-15 charge that allows S to use any ATM without an additional charge by the local bank. We have warned him that when he uses the ATM he should take out at least $100 at a time. Don’t waste the $2 fee on a $20 withdrawal. College also has an account attached to student ID for things like laundry, snacks, book store purchases, etc. that can be refilled either by credit card or by check on his account.</p>
<p>For my D who is 1200 miles away, we use USAA for her checking and savings. It is a joint account with us so we can transfer funds online. They don’t have a bricks and mortar bank anywhere and have been dealing with people moving around forever with the military so they are well set up for this. They reimburse a certain number of ATM fees a month, so she just budgets how often she gets cash out, and she can keep these accounts no matter where she moves to. We put $500 on a prepaid credit card with USAA for emergencies, esplly while traveling, but now I am thinking it might be better to get her an actual credit card with a $500 limit on it. This way she can start building credit in her name. Our older D is moving to a new city and had to have her roommate get the utilities in her name cause my D doesn’t have a credit history. So while I was opposed to the college student credit card initially, now I think it’s a good idea if it is set up so the parents can monitor it.</p>
<p>We also have USAA checking and savings for our DS - and he applied for and got with no hassle their college kids credit card as well. Low limit - like $500 - but in his name so that the credit report starts building. We have been with USAA for more than 20 years now and highly recommend them - never a problem.</p>
<p>He also has a joint card with me for use on books, tuition, and gas. We got that for him when he got his drivers license with the agreement that he could use ONLY for gas and pre approved items (e.g. when he was doing travel baseball he could use for hotel room or he could call if he wanted/needed to use for something else). It worked out very well for us over the last two years - but now felt it was time for him to have his own card.</p>