Theodore Rigby
Are you or your children heading off to college? You may want to shop around for a checking account that won’t siphon hefty fees from your school budget.
If your hometown bank doesn’t have ATMs or branches near your campus, you may end up paying steep fees to use another bank’s machines. Likewise, a community bank located near your school may not have ATMs when you return home for breaks. “You need to research it, and think about where you’ll be in the summer,” advises Alex Matjanec, co-founder of a bank comparison site, MyBankTracker.com.
To attract student customers (who they hope to convert to long-term account holders), some banks promote “student” checking accounts, with features like no minimum balance requirement, no monthly account fees and even some “fee-free” withdrawals at a competitor’s ATMs. The accounts generally require you to be enrolled in college, or be under a certain age.
Mr. Matjanec suggests taking a look, for instance, at the Citibank Student Account, which offers unlimited “free” use of non-Citibank ATMs. (Citibank doesn’t charge you a fee, but the other bank may.)
U.S. Bank’s Student Checking account won’t charge you for up to four transactions a month at other banks’ ATMs.
And USAA’s Free Checking account, which the company recommends for students, refunds up to $15 a month in other banks’ ATM fees. (You don’t have to be a member of USAA, which primarily serves military families, to use its checking accounts, a bank spokeswoman says. But, if you’re not a member, you can’t use certain functions, like mobile deposit. Deposits can be made via direct deposit, by transfers from other accounts, via USAA ATMs or by mail.)
Other student accounts to compare, he says: TD Bank’s TD Student account and Chase’s College Checking.
Online-only banks can also work well for students, he notes, because without physical branches to support, they generally have lower fees. ING Direct offers fee-free withdrawals from ATMs in the Allpoint Network (you can search online to see locations). And Ally Bank, another branchless bank, refunds ATM fees at machines nationwide.
Bank of America has phased out its “Campus Edge” student account and instead steers students to e-Banking, an account that waives a monthly $8.95 fee as long as the account holder uses ATMs for transactions (rather than a live teller) and agrees to receive electronic statements.
Another Web site, MoneyRates, has compiled a list of 11 banks offering checking accounts that may be attractive to college students. The list includes some national banks, as well as smaller regional players. It includes Sovereign Bank’s Student Checking, which allows free transfers from a parent’s account, and Fifth Third’s Student Checking, which waives its own fees on five transactions a month at non-Fifth Third ATMs. But compare carefully: One account listed, Regions Bank LifeGreen Checking for Students, charges a $4 fee in any month that you make a debit card purchase.
If you’re a college student, or the parent of one, how will you handle banking while on campus?
Article source: http://feeds.nytimes.com/click.phdo?i=25d198d666faf936a14af551a76374a9