Students who are away at college, far from even the expanded reach of their parents, often face a dilemma when it comes to money: they don’t have enough of it on hand or it isn’t readily available to them when they need it. Thankfully, cash on hand is no longer the only way that students can have access to funds which is actually good, but for another reason: carrying around a lot of money can be risky from a safety and security standpoint.

If your student is in need of access to money, the following are some ways for you ensure that they are never quite broke:

Joint Checking Account – Why not open up a joint checking account with your son or daughter, allowing parents and child to make deposits and withdrawals? Supply your student with a debit card to allow him or her to withdraw funds as needed or make purchases which will instantly deduct these funds from the account. Give joint secured online access to the account to allow both you and your child to review statements.

Store Card – If your student enjoys visiting a favorite coffee or sandwich shop, you can give him or her a Starbucks or Panera Bread card which is treated just like cash. Choose those cards without an expiration date (hint: avoid most gift cards) and with no fees attached.

College Credit – Some schools allow parents to deposit funds into a reserve fund for their children, an account that is managed by the school. If they get in a bind, your son or daughter can access these funds to cover expenses or to help out in an emergency. Funds may only be available during business hours so don’t rely upon this method exclusively.

Credit Card – Cash or a debit card may not do if your son is stranded and he needs a tow. Some tow operators will only deal with a credit card, so why not co-sign a student credit card and allow him to access these funds in an emergency? You can place a limit on the credit line, say $500 which will cover most emergencies while keeping your child from going overboard.

Paper Money – No student should be without actual money, but they tend to burn right through it if it is in their wallet. You cannot lord yourself over your grown children, but you can urge them to keep cash on hand limited and use bills no larger than a twenty dollar bills in the event that a wallet or purse is stolen.

You’ll also want to make sure that your son or daughter carries around with them a health insurance card, personal identification, and even a AAA or other motorist club card. You can’t and shouldn’t monitor your child’s every move, but you can help them learn how to respond to a problem or an emergency by equipping them with the resources they need to succeed including cash access.

Adv. — Smart planning guides and other helpful tools can be found on OffToCollege.com, your resource to help you prepare for and succeed in college. Learn all about credit and how to manage money while away from home.

Tags: ATM, automatic teller machine, cash card, college funds, credit card, debit card, manage money, money, store card

Cash strapped colleges frequently look for support from the business community in exchange for free advertising or consumer access opportunities.

For example, it isn’t uncommon to find Pepsi machines on some campuses which might be allowed while forbidding competing (namely Coca-Cola) products from hawking their wares. In exchange for exclusive access, the local bottling company signs a contract with the university and offers the school an annual fee. Also, take a look at the scoreboards in many college gymnasiums and you will see that it is circled by ads — clearly, advertising to support higher education has become a way of life.

Some colleges have carried the whole advertising/marketing arrangement one step further by making college identification cards do double duty — in addition to providing an important form of i.d., many schools allow these cards to serve as debit cards. Moreover, some schools are receiving a nice payout for their exclusive banking arrangements.

Not everyone thinks that allowing banks to have easy access to students is the right call. On the Higher Ed Watch blog, which is part of the New America Foundation, at least 127 colleges and universities have established banker-id partnerships. The University of Minnesota is one of the more aggressive schools in their partnership, having recently inked a deal with TCF Financial which will pay the school $40 million through 2030.

TCF Financial has seen a $50 million rise in deposits in the areas surrounding the school’s two largest campuses, attributing most of the increase to a rise in student deposits.

Higher Ed Watch argues that most arrangements give students no choice to switch to another bank or, if they do, a fee is charged for this service. In addition, studies are showing that many students are just learning how to handle finances themselves and are prone to overdraft charges which can cost an average of $35 per transaction. With little money to spare, most college students simply cannot afford to be hit with additional charges including ATM fees.

While the trend to banker-id student cards continues to grow, not every university thinks that they are a good idea. At Ohio State University, the school created its own no-fee debit system to handle student spending. Unlike a bank-issued debit card, if a student doesn’t have funds available, his purchase is declined — no money, no purchase, but no overdraft fees.

Further Reading

College debit-ID card deals draw scrutiny

Disclosure: Some of the articles and links on SayCampusLife are, in fact, for student debit cards. Please use discretion when seeking any type of consumer debt or financial planning arrangement.

Tags: ATM card, credit card, debit card, student cards