D will not be 18 until October, so her account had to have a parent on it. We treat our kids’ accounts as theirs. Even if the parent name isn’t on it, you can deposit money into it anytime.
@readingclaygirl : isn’t your account set up as either/or with your parent so you can withdraw by yourself? If you have a debit card, it would not require anyone else present. Younger D has a joint savings account and she can withdraw any time by herself. You also want to use a bank that is close to campus or has an ATM on campus.
I opened a credit card account and added older D to it; now younger D has also been added. It is for expenditures we would normally cover (books) and emergencies. I have it set up so I see any charge that comes through. She has not abused this privilege.
My daughter is a summer camp counselor at a camp almost two ours away. She left the day after graduation (5/28) and will finish on 7/29. I thought it would be a good opportunity for me to mentally transition (she’s on only child) but I was wrong. As I walked behind her while she scanned things for her college registry at BBB yesterday…it was very difficult not to burst into tears. She’s home for the 4th of July week and all I wanna do is hug/hold her hand like she’s a baby again…she’s 18. I gotta get a grip here :((
Word of caution…do not set up your BBB college items as a “Pack and Hold” instead of a “College Registry”. If you do it as a pack and hold no one can purchase anything until the pick up day (which defeats the purpose). Also, “College Registry” means the items are already at the store. I would not have know the BBB assistant mistakenly set it up as a PH if people didn’t immediately attempt to purchase items for her. Good grief.
Update: College Registry items will not be at the location. So we now have a “Pack and Hold” to make sure the items are in the store AND a registry to allow other to purchase things if they so choose. Yup! I have no idea what I’m doing but me and my baby girl are having a ball!!
I have a feeling I am running Airbnb for my DD’s friends this summer. Every couple of weeks I get to meet a new friend of hers. I am going to miss having those energetic young people around the house when she leaves for college.
Since I was in college a LONG time ago, I am seeking advice regarding “allowance” for my son. This will just be spending money. He will have all necessary supplies like soap, detergent, etc. We will pay his cell phone bill. What do you all think is a reasonable amount?
@HappyFace2018 we’re in the same boat. DD leff for her summer camp job in MA (we’re in TX) early morning of July 1st, we won’t see here again until late night of August 14th and we leave for move in day on 17th. So only two days home and that will be filled with laundry and packing. Where did the last 18 years go?
@Justathought1 Every time, I’ve read a discussion like this on CC, there seems to be one conclusion: there is no right or wrong amount. Personally I’m guessing my parents will up my current $5 weekly allowance I’ve gotten since like age 7 but to what I’m not sure.
@Justathought1 Everyone has different ideas on this but we will not be giving DD an allowance. She will have a meal plan and credit card for approved expenses like toiletries and gas and car maintenance. We will meet her needs but she’s on her own for her wants she has money saved up from babysitting and birthdays and she was given some cash and gift cards for graduation gifts and she’s working at a summer camp for spending money.
Now that’s not to say I won’t occasionally send her a $20 here or there or random Starbucks gift card but there will be no allowance.
@Justathought1 did your son have allowances before ? I think this is very much depends on the child. My DD had credit card since she was in the middle school and proved to be a very reasonable spender so she never had any allowances. I will not be buying a meal plan for her since she plans to cook for two meals per day and buy the third one somewhere on campus so I estimated that in addition to weekly grocery shopping she will probably be spending $10 per day. In any case she will have a credit card that I will be paying for. If her spending habits change we will have to revisit this arrangement.
I just today went to check with my D if she has a credit report yet. I had added her to my CC at 18 as an authorized user so she could use it for gas and if she picked up things at the grocery store, etc. No credit history yet, so apparently they don’t report to the credit agencies since she is not a joint owner of the card.
We then tried signing up for a Discover student card and she was approved.
She is living in an apartment this year so she will be using the card for food and I will pay it off every month, but she will build credit in her name.
We are paying for everything she needs, but spending money for going out with friends, concerts, etc is on her and she works for that.
@Justathought1 Maybe give him like $100 to start with per month, that would be $25 a week, and see how that goes?
Is he getting an allowance now?
@mommdc My older son got Amazon student card under his name in college. He also had a part time job. After he graduated and got his first real job he decided to buy a townhouse instead of spending on rent. They had a very low down payment requirements for a first time buyers at the time. His credit was not enough to get a loan. We had to have my husband on this loan as well to have it approved. It takes a long time to build a sufficient credit.
How much they spend varies widely. My kids ranged from $10-25 a week for entertainment and going out. They had campus jobs so we didn’t give them an allowance. I did send the random $20 on occasion.
