Advice to College Students on Bank Promotions: Read the Fine Print
Despite the spread of person-to-person payment options like Venmo, he said, “cash is still preferred in many situations.”
Big banks like Chase and Wells Fargo typically market “student” accounts that waive monthly maintenance fees while you’re in college.
“Just because it looks like official mail from your school,” he said, “you don’t have to accept it.”
Colleges are now required to disclose their bank marketing agreements on their websites, along with details about the related costs paid by students who use the accounts,
and to make the information available to the federal Department of Education.
Some colleges, it said, may not have reported yet or the information may not have been posted to the website yet by the Federal Student Aid office.)
So students shouldn’t automatically choose their school’s “official” bank account — or assume
that the account is the best choice for them — simply because it comes with a card bearing the school’s logo, said Seth Frotman, the student loan ombudsman for the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
And in that case, the best option may be to keep using that account, said Chris Moon, consumer banking analyst with financial website ValuePenguin.
Don’t rule out local credit unions, which may offer low-cost accounts, or online
banks, which can be a cheap option if you don’t mind a lack of branches.
But bear in mind that once you graduate — or five years after the account was first opened — the bank will typically
start charging you the fee, unless you meet other requirements to have it waived, like a direct deposit.