Why College Kids Are Moving Towards Free Banking

Has your child in college started banking? Is he or she attempting to keep tabs on all those PayPayl PYPL reimbursements they sent out to their friends?

There has been a general trend in recent years of college students beginning to move towards free online banking as opposed to traditional central banking. Read more to find out why your child may be asking to move toward free banking among several thousand other college students today.

Avoid Maintenance Fees

What exactly does free banking entail? Free banking is where banks are free to issue their banknotes without regulations beyond those applicable to most common enterprises. There is no role at all for a central bank here, which is often a beneficial way to avoid maintenance fees. As a college student myself, I turn to online banking for a few reasons, and a lack of maintenance fees is one of them. Central banking in recent years by the newer generations have come to be seen as unnecessary because of these avoidable fees.

Oftentimes, banks will have checking accounts targeted at students, luring them in by promising five years of fees waved during their time as a student.

Easy Online Banking

Another appeal of free banking is the ability to access online banking easily from anywhere. Long gone are the days where you’re on your bank’s clock, waiting for opening hours or being unable to look at your accounts after work. This availability puts the power in the bankers’ hands, instead of waiting for a teller to be on the job.

No Minimums

A great draw to online banking is also having no minimum requirement for your balance. This takes the pressure off having to worry about making enough direct deposits into your account. There are no real requirements for most online banks, making it much easier for students who often don’t have a steady current income. You can simply focus on earning, not earning enough to make an arbitrary minimum.

No ATM Fees

As a student without a real income, the last thing one needs are pesky ATM fees to start building up when you need to take out cash. With free online banking, there are several financial services that offer accounts with zero ATM fees.

MoneyLion, for example, is one way to keep your money in your account. MoneyLion is available through 55,000 fee-free ATM’s across the globe, meaning no ATM fees. This is a sign of a reliable online banking service, as most will be part of an ATM network with thousands of easily acceptable ATMs across the globe. These ATMS can also be located through your mobile device.

Cash Back Rewards

An appeal that no one can resist is cash back with your banking. Unlike traditional banks, many online banks have reward systems, such as offering cash back.

A reward of using MoneyLion is that users can take out a loan from their planned future income, and pay back the money at their own pace. This removes the stress of deadlines from a certain loan when life gets in the way. Having this flexibility, as well as other rewards are why many students today are moving towards free banking.

Money Lion is a content partner of Benzinga.