This particular card is issued by a bank that doesn't even have a branch in the state, let alone in town.

The only place you can use it as an ATM card is on campus.

If you use it as a debit card they charge you a fee. If you use it at any other ATM machine besides the 3 on campus they charge you a fee. If you try to write checks on the account they charge you a fee (plus make you buy checks from them).

I always use it as a charge card because of this, or for the ATM machines on campus.

In fact usually I go to the ATM and take out the $500 max every day until I've got it all and then put it in my regular credit union account, but the last semester was hell on wheels for me and I never got around to emptying the account out. This was partly due to the fact that the only place I can use an ATM without a fee is on campus, quite some distance from where my classes are.

This account is a really bad deal for students and the campus authorities ought to be ashamed of themselves for forcing students into using it.