ROTC and Bank

Both of my sons will be attending college on Army ROTC Scholarships. We are so excited for them! My husband and I have not served in the military. We are trying to figure out if ROTC cadets are eligible to open accounts with a military bank (like USAA)?

Looking at their website, it seems like ROTC cadets would qualify for an account - but when one of my sons tried to sign up, he was not eligible due to not having a history of military service.

We are in Texas with a local bank - but our sons will be on the East Coast, so we’re trying to find a bank that will work for them.

Any suggestions or advice would be greatly appreciated!

Just guessing but they may need to contract and get their military ID first. DS didn't open an account with USAA, which he loves, until late senior year. We opened a joint account for him with a bank in his University town, that way we could make deposits when necessary. Seemed to work for him at the time.

Thank you! That sounds like a good plan.

USAA allows you to open one as soon as you get your first payment. For example, for proof of being a MIDN, I sent them my pay stub from Oct of freshman year, and was able to open an account a week later.

Thank you!

You may want to follow both paths suggested here. Depositing funds to a USAA account in his name might prove impossible for you. He could always transfer from one account to the other. It might make ATM access easier too, depending on where they are going to college.

Once my DD started receiving her stipend, the same bank she has always had sent her a letter stating that she was able to use ATM’s (not her bank) with no extra fee and also no international transaction fees. Since that account is already linked to our account I can transfer money to her when needed, which has been convenient. Although, these days she prefers Venmo. She is a rising senior and plans on joining USAA this year. Just wanted to give a shout out that if it is easier your sons still might get some benefits from their current bank.

Thank you!

@Laurantwins Personally since you cannot set this up until after his 1st check, I would not do it until he commissions. You take a risk that they screw up the paperwork and the stipend gets lost in the system. Our DS's stipend got lost for about 6 months. Paperwork was being sent monthly by the NCOIC. HQ AFROTC would say it is fixed. Mid month arrived and no stipend. They than said well, it takes time for DFAS, it should be there by the 1st. 1st came around....no paycheck. Repeat.
~ In the end it was because someone at DFAS inverted the routing numbers and so it bounced around in cyber space.

We have been USAA members for decades. As a matter of fact my kids being military dependents have had USAA membership since the day they were born. None opened USAA accounts while in college, instead they used the bank that was on campus. To this day my husband and I do not use USAA checking as our primary checking account. We have 3 checking accounts with 3 different banks....USAA is my husbands tdy (business) account since they do not charge ATM fees.
~ The real benefits impo are their credit cards and insurance. Plus their subscriber check that comes in Dec. (He would not get that until he starts using their insurance and it takes yrs before he will get it)

A number of banks have free checking accounts for college students and for active duty military, JP Morgan Chase to name one. There was no problem with direct deposit of the ROTC stipend. You might want to find out what banks are on campus.

Pima said:

~ The real benefits impo are their credit cards and insurance. Plus their subscriber check that comes in Dec. (He would not get that until he starts using their insurance and it takes yrs before he will get it)

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Been a USAA member since the mid 70's and thought I knew about the various benefits but the "USAA Senior Bonus" check came as a total surprise.

@OldRetSWO what is the Senior Bonus?

I won't lie I get a little anxious during the summer with hurricanes. I know that if they hit certain areas hard, than come Dec. my SSA check will be smaller since they had to pay out so much for insurance claims. We have had USAA for 30 yrs., and that means usually that check pays for my Xmas Eve party for 50 people, alcohol included!

BACK ON TOPIC:
One other great thing USAA offers is the AMEX card. I am not sure they do it for cadets. Check into it.
AMEX waives the cost of the Platinum Card. Beware it is expensive. You have to pay at 1st, but the next month they will credit the account for that cost.
The platinum allows you entrance to the private club in the airports....so much nicer than sitting in those horrible chairs.
You also get points to upgrade on any flight
We use it for everything...cable, phone, gas, food, movies, dinners, etc. We immediately pay it off everytime we use it from our bank account. IE spent 50 at the gas station... came home and paid that amount from our bank account to AMEX, so when the bill came it was $0 owed, but we got thousands of points every month.
~My DS ADAF does that to this day. He even pays his mtg that way.

He also needs to understand that they demand payment in full every month. My kids all went with only an AMEX and an ATM card.

Pima said:

@OldRetSWO what is the Senior Bonus?

I won't lie I get a little anxious during the summer with hurricanes. I know that if they hit certain areas hard, than come Dec. my SSA check will be smaller since they had to pay out so much for insurance claims. We have had USAA for 30 yrs., and that means usually that check pays for my Xmas Eve party for 50 people, alcohol included!

BACK ON TOPIC:
One other great thing USAA offers is the AMEX card. I am not sure they do it for cadets. Check into it.
AMEX waives the cost of the Platinum Card. Beware it is expensive. You have to pay at 1st, but the next month they will credit the account for that cost.
The platinum allows you entrance to the private club in the airports....so much nicer than sitting in those horrible chairs.
You also get points to upgrade on any flight
We use it for everything...cable, phone, gas, food, movies, dinners, etc. We immediately pay it off everytime we use it from our bank account. IE spent 50 at the gas station... came home and paid that amount from our bank account to AMEX, so when the bill came it was $0 owed, but we got thousands of points every month.
~My DS ADAF does that to this day. He even pays his mtg that way.

He also needs to understand that they demand payment in full every month. My kids all went with only an AMEX and an ATM card.

Click to expand...

@Pima - you reach a certain number of years of membership, 40, and you get an additional chunk of Subscriber Savings Account money. The Senior Bonus. It’s not guaranteed, and it’s paid separately from the SSA.
[emoji16]

As I understand it, the above-mentioned Senior Bonus and Subscriber Savings Account are for USAA members who have property & casualty policies (including auto insurance, which my son has). They are not associated with USAA bank accounts. If this is incorrect, please let us know.

@Pima - you reach a certain number of years of membership, 40, and you get an additional chunk of Subscriber Savings Account money. The Senior Bonus. It’s not guaranteed, and it’s paid separately from the SSA.
[emoji16][/QUOTE]

Crap that means we have another decade to go!

Pima said:

@OldRetSWO what is the Senior Bonus?

I won't lie I get a little anxious during the summer with hurricanes. I know that if they hit certain areas hard, than come Dec. my SSA check will be smaller since they had to pay out so much for insurance claims. We have had USAA for 30 yrs., and that means usually that check pays for my Xmas Eve party for 50 people, alcohol included!

BACK ON TOPIC:
One other great thing USAA offers is the AMEX card. I am not sure they do it for cadets. Check into it.
AMEX waives the cost of the Platinum Card. Beware it is expensive. You have to pay at 1st, but the next month they will credit the account for that cost.
The platinum allows you entrance to the private club in the airports....so much nicer than sitting in those horrible chairs.
You also get points to upgrade on any flight
We use it for everything...cable, phone, gas, food, movies, dinners, etc. We immediately pay it off everytime we use it from our bank account. IE spent 50 at the gas station... came home and paid that amount from our bank account to AMEX, so when the bill came it was $0 owed, but we got thousands of points every month.
~My DS ADAF does that to this day. He even pays his mtg that way.

He also needs to understand that they demand payment in full every month. My kids all went with only an AMEX and an ATM card.

Click to expand...

Following up on the AMEX card...you don't need to have a relationship with USAA to apply for the AMEX card...my DS applied immediately after commissioning via American Express website...it is also all he uses...for everything. And he uses access to the airline clubs when traveling.

As far as banking...for the time being, I work in a Bank and my DS chose to keep his accounts where I work. He manages all his finances, but he looks to keeping his accounts where they are as a back up plan in case he needs anything taken care of once he is deployed.

Laurantwins said:

We are in Texas with a local bank - but our sons will be on the East Coast, so we’re trying to find a bank that will work for them.

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We just went thru this a year ago (we are out in California and my son is on contract with AFROTC at Univ of Minnesota). While we have insurance thru USAA as they can't be beat for service and other great features (like the SSA below - it's like profit sharing where you get money back based on your premiums and how much USAA had to pay out that year), we don't bank thru them (but have in the past and loved it....my wife just likes the idea of a physical bank).

We use Chase as a family, and he maintained separate banking accounts from us starting in high school but those were custodial accounts. Unfortunately, they didn't have coverage up in MN. I left it up to my cadet as another step towards adulting....

My son chose the local bank that has agreements with the University for a couple of reasons:
- they offered up free swag when you opened up an account...the free hoodie was pretty compelling to him
- they had ATMs and banks everywhere on campus plus right off campus - made it very easy to get cash when needed
- his student ID card also doubled as an ATM card so it made it simple for him...he has a debit card and electronic banking so he is self-sufficient now.

If we need to send him any money, we Venmo him (he wanted to cash some Christmas gift checks while he was at home so we just deposited them into our account and I shot him a Venmo for the amount...easy).

So two thoughts:
1. you will get info and offers from the bank(s) that have relationships with school as part of the freshman information flow...just understand what is needed to open accounts and do it as part of freshman orientation. You just need the account info for the direct deposit slips for DFAS for in processing.
2. use a national bank like Chase if they have coverage both at your home area and school (do a search for ATMs and branches at the school location thru Google maps or the bank website). Chase has a student account that is free...and with routine direct deposits like the stipends, I think they may waive any fee to get a more flexible account. That way your students can have access to their bank accounts no matter where they are at and you can do that now to eliminate that off the list.

Good luck!

It took me years to get my son to get a credit card. He finally got the USAA AMEX and swears by it. He travels enough that the airport club stuff comes in handy and it impresses his girlfriend too!

Pima said:

@Laurantwins Personally since you cannot set this up until after his 1st check, I would not do it until he commissions. You take a risk that they screw up the paperwork and the stipend gets lost in the system. Our DS's stipend got lost for about 6 months. Paperwork was being sent monthly by the NCOIC. HQ AFROTC would say it is fixed. Mid month arrived and no stipend. They than said well, it takes time for DFAS, it should be there by the 1st. 1st came around....no paycheck. Repeat.
~ In the end it was because someone at DFAS inverted the routing numbers and so it bounced around in cyber space.

We have been USAA members for decades. As a matter of fact my kids being military dependents have had USAA membership since the day they were born. None opened USAA accounts while in college, instead they used the bank that was on campus. To this day my husband and I do not use USAA checking as our primary checking account. We have 3 checking accounts with 3 different banks....USAA is my husbands tdy (business) account since they do not charge ATM fees.
~ The real benefits impo are their credit cards and insurance. Plus their subscriber check that comes in Dec. (He would not get that until he starts using their insurance and it takes yrs before he will get it)

Click to expand...

Thank you so much for this information! I am looking into on-campus banks!