<p>My youngest daughter will be headed away to college next year. When her sister attended college a few years ago we gave her a credit card for school expenses, but she ended up abusing it and we cancelled the card. </p>
<p>We really don’t want to give our youngest her own credit card either, but she needs to have access to money for books, school expenses, etc… We’ve told her we will pay for her school expenses and give her a small monthly allowance but are trying to figure out the best way to do this (she already has a Visa check card attached to her checking account).</p>
<p>How do most people handle this? Deposit the needed money in her checking account? Pre-paid credit cards? </p>
<p>For me, the answer is get a full time summer job/part time school year job, save your earnings into a savings account, then get a linked ATM/debit card to pay for expenses. If that money runs out after being spent responsibly, I will replenish it with a reasonable amount of money.</p>
<p>My son has a debit cardthats associated with “his” money and a credit card for things I pay for, like books. The banks statements come to our home address, and honestly he spends so little I don’t worry of he uses the wrong card occasionally. I’ve been ver lucky so far, I know.</p>
<p>Here is the Thumper Family way. The kids worked in summers and on vacations, and part time (up to ten hours a week) during college. Money they earned was for all discretionary spending…and we asked that they pay for their books also.</p>
<p>They earned their own spending money…and spent it. To be honest, I have no idea how much they earned or what they spent it on. It was their money.</p>
<p>I will say…our kids were very careful how they spent money THEY earned. They learned to budget and live within their means.</p>
<p>We put the semester funds equal to the meal plan into our kids checking account each semester. It was our kids’ job to be sure it lasted. We also gave each of them a credit card in their name with us as joint holders. We gave them explicit info on how it could be used–books and supplies and Pre-approved (by us) purchases only. Neither has ever abused and lets us know if they make ANY charges.</p>
<p>Giving them credit cards was for my peace of mind, knowing they could buy a plane ticket or for any gas or card problems if needed. I know others have had problems with CCs–setting a relatively low limit can be a helpful way of keeping it from being too expensive a lesson for all. I wanted them to have the experience of handling their own finances. </p>
<p>I have friends whose S is still sorting out having to repay his folks for running up credit cards too. Not quite sure why some have much more trouble with CCs than others. Our kids and nieces and nephews have never had problems being responsible about use of CCs.</p>
<p>Many schools have school accounts which you can put money on (and the kids use their ID card to access these funds.) For my daughter, I put money on her school account at the beginning of the year and she uses it in the bookstore, in the local CVS for toiletries, in the on-campus dining places, and in many nearby off-campus stores and restaurants. (You could add an allowance to this account monthly if you did not want to load it all at once.)</p>
<p>She also has a debit card with limited funds with a bank that has ATMs on campus and can get pocket money from that account. I also give her some cash whenever I see her. She has found that many on-campus club sponsored activities require cash.</p>
<p>D had a debit card and I transferred money to D’s account when needed, I got the statements. Also a very limited credit card for emergencies- rent a hotel room, get a plane ticket, use in europe.</p>
<p>No credit card for my D when she was in college, but she did have a Visa Debit, associated with her student checking account that was linked to my checking account. I transferred in biweekly 150.00 for discretionary things and when it was time to buy books, I wound transfer in the amount needed. Very easy with mobile app on my phone. Her school id also served as a Campus cash debit card that money could be deposited in via her checking and used all over campus and at locations throughout the city.</p>
<p>I would like to point out that just because your older kid abused her privilege doesn’t mean the younger one would. I think it is a good idea to give the student your family credit card in case of emergency. I would give her a very stern talk about when she could use the card, and cancel at a first sign of abuse.</p>
<p>We transfer monthly allowance (food, fun money) to kid’s acct on the same day, and she uses her credit card to books, travel and other agreed expenses to be paid by us. She calls us to get permission before she puts anything out of ordinary on the card.</p>
<p>we do something similar to oldfort. Both kids have “our” credit card, which they use to buy books and other school-related expenditures, plus any “luxuries” that I authorize. (For example, S flew out to spend the weekend at D’s school. I told them to put their dinners together on the card, my treat.) Of course, if they run into a situation where they needed to put something personal on the CC, they can do so and we will settle it up later. </p>
<p>Then we have automatic transfer of $x per month to checking accounts linked with a debit card. They can do as they see fit with that money - go out with friends, etc. Both my kids are pretty frugal, so I’m not worried.</p>
<p>My D is a senior in college and S graduated from college. Neither one needed a credit card. I reimbursed them for books they bought, or I found the required book list and bought them. I transferred the amount equal to the board plan for meals when they lived off campus into the bank account plus $100 a month for discretionary expenses. They use their debit cards that they and I can track for fraud as their checking accounts are linked to mine. D has an account that she puts her earnings into that I cannot access (mainly because our bank is not in her college town). S just used the linked account. I do give the Amazon prime password to by books.</p>
<p>For online purchases (Amazon, textbooks, tickets, etc.), my daughter does not use her debit card, I use my internet only credit card (I have a credit card which I use only for online purchases) and do the purchasing for her and have it shipped to her school address. This cuts down on the fraud possibilities for her debit card.</p>
<p>D has debit card linked to our checking and that has worked great. It’s easy to track and we reimburse her for school expenses and certain extras. If she’s running low and needs extra funds she can text us and we can do the transfer on the mobile app. The only downside is that there’s not a branch or ATM in her area so she pays a fee for cash, but she almost never uses cash anyway. She had our credit card last year and never abused it, but the number got used for expenses she had nothing to do with – the third time that’s happened to us. For the sake of security and simplicity she just has debit care now and we’ve never had a problem with debit card security.</p>
<p>I have my own debit card linked to my checking account that I use for my expenses. My dad’s name is also on the account, so he has access to it to make transfers if need be, like in case of emergency. It also made it really easy to reimburse me when I bought textbooks or the emergency plane ticket home.</p>
<p>My school did have the option to put money on the student ID card that could be used in the area around campus, but we never used that.</p>
<p>I also never got an allowance from my parents in college. I had the money I got for graduation plus my summer job, and later on money I earned on campus and from co-op. $300 a month or so seems like a lot, though, especially while having a meal plan. I’m not even sure how I’d spend that much!</p>
<p>I have to say, I never got the idea of having kid buy own air ticket home. I am much more savvy about airline travel and I use my miles to bring D back and forth - that still feels like my job versus hers. I get perks she doesn’t, eg upgrades to first class. Pointless to have her do it and pay more for less just so she can say she’s done it.</p>
<p>I made a predetermined monetary commitment funded in full to my son on a semester basis at the beginning of the semester. I deposited it directly into his banking account. He had checked it out before his arrival freshman year and used a bank that had a convenient ATM at school.</p>
<p>He figured out how to spend my commitment amount and had access to his personally earned funds. I did not have any monitoring to do. No credit card of mine was involved. If he “abused” anything only he had to deal with the consequences of being out of money.</p>
<p>He became a master at getting great flights (domestic and international) that has carried over to after college.</p>
<p>There is little to “sweat” from a parent’s point of view if it is up to the student to manage their money/expenses and the parent is committed to letting it come out however the student’s decisions determine.</p>
<p>Entirely different funding system on the other side of the pond (so the money comes from the government, not parents), but the basic principle is that I get money deposited into my bank account (which has its own debit card attached) three times a year (September, January, April). That money has to pay for everything except tuition fees, so rent, bills, books, food, socialising, transport, everything until the next installment comes in. It’s enough for all the basics, but not extravagance. </p>
<p>If I wish to have any more money than that fixed sum, I go out to work. I also work over the summer to replenish funds. My parents would help me out financially if there was something big, expensive and outside of my control that happened, but there never has been. </p>
<p>It does teach discipline and budgeting skills when you have to make a $3200 lump sum last for three or four months, and I know that my parents aren’t going to bail me out if I end up spending more than I should.</p>
<p>My son receives a small amount weekly “for whatever” (transferred into his checking acct, he has a debit card) He has no overdraft protection. He has no car at school (that will account for a lot of unanticipated expenses) For unanticipated school-related expenses he contacts us and we transfer the amount he needs. We can transfer it immediately. Sometimes we ask that he email a copy of a receipt after the purchase to verify. He has a saving account of his summer earnings which he agrees he does not want to touch so it is not linked to his checking. At this time, this is not a child I would give a credit card to.</p>
<p>D on the other hand - this was years before - we put an extra $1,000 in her checking account “just in case”. In four years she never touched it.</p>
<p>Depends on the student. They are both fine young adults :)</p>
<p>For cash, I usually just got cash back when I got something at the grocery store. There was a fee on the ATMs since I was still using my hometown bank, and I only ended up using the ATM once in three years. You don’t need a lot of cash in college except for those on-campus things (and carrying around a lot of cash can be risky, especially on an urban campus), so this was easy enough.</p>
<p>Also, my parents usually did get my plane tickets, but when I had to come home on less than a day’s notice because my mom was dying - well, they were both otherwise occupied.</p>