Student Checking Accounts
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Student checking accounts and the accompanying services they provide are fundamentally important for college students who may be away from home for the first time. Many students will probably only need ATM or debit cards to get money out of their home banks' resources, but others who have a job on campus or off will need a local bank from which to conduct their financial affairs. It may be quite financially prudent to have local student checking accounts and their nearby ATMs so that three dollar fees are not extracted from one's checking each time a non-member card is used. Without the convenience of checking accounts, students are forced to keep money under mattresses, and maybe even in the toilet tank, none of which are real good ideas. But there are some issues to iron out with the lending institution to use and whether or not to remain with the bank from home.
Every fall, banks from all over the city or area in which the college resides will go after students for their business. Giveaways, prizes and incentives to open student checking accounts and apply for credit cards are routine. The campaign can get quite glitzy sometimes with the gifts of I-Pods, or as benign as giving away a Frisbee, but the banks know that the students represent a prime financial target, especially after they graduate. In the attempt to secure the students' business, the banks offer free checking and high interest credit cards in many cases. Of course, there is a big downside to the business of free checking accounts and the gifts. When a student graduates, the bank begins its fee schedules with the account and many are in for a sticker shock to see how much money a bank can charge for once free services.
In many cases, the freshman year is the first time a young person handles a checking account responsibility. There are some high schools that offer or require classes on keeping and balancing an account, but for those who are unprepared the reality hits when the first notice of an overdraft comes by email or phone call, etc. and the cost of the overdraft is fifty or more dollars. The lure of the free student checking accounts mantra from the competing banks usually includes free checking, free debit card, free checks, no minimum balances, and direct deposit. They do not include freedom from overdraft fees unless there is overdraft protection in the checking package.
For students who do work a job as well as attend school, the need for student checking accounts is crucial. If students do not have direct deposit, meaning that they can have their payroll checks automatically deposited into their bank account, there is a very urgent need to have a place to go that will cash that check for free. But the advice is to have direct deposit for payroll checks because if a bank holiday falls on a payday, the deposit will still be made, which is unlikely with a paper check protocol. So many people want to marginalize Jesus, making Him just a good teacher or philosopher or community organizer, but one prophet looked hundreds of years into the future and recognized the reason and the power of Jesus' death. "But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement of our peace was upon Him and with His striped we are healed."
It is advisable to pay extra for overdraft protection on student checking accounts. This offers the peace of mind that when a student does spend more than what he has in his check writing account, money from a savings account, a credit card or debit account or a bank line of credit will cover it. Without that protection, overdraft fees have been known to be more than fifty dollars per check bounced and that is a big ouch! on a student's budget. Online services may or may not be available for those who have student checking accounts, but they can fit right into the lifestyle of a busy student who doesn't have time to be visiting a financial institution regularly. Paying bills, seeing all transactions, and moving money from savings to checking and vice versa are a few of the conveniences of having online capabilities.
There is no shame in admitting that student checking accounts or any banking account for that matter actually frustrates the pom-poms out of a person. Plenty of very smart people will freely admit that keeping and maintaining a bank account is too tedious and time consuming for them. So if this particular accounting responsibility seems to need a mentoring system with it, most financial institutions that offer free student services will be happy to sit down and work out those gremlins in the old accounting ability. Perhaps even more care should be taken in terms of handling the credit card that usually accompanies most student lending institution's accounts services. Few students are taught from a young age about the power, both helpful and possibly destructive in offered credit and the convenience of that plastic weasel in one's wallet or purse. The card can tempt, the card can lure, the card can promise, the car can even cover the cost of a broken windshield on your car, but the card will not pay for the over two thousand dollar balance the average student has on that card at graduation.
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