A record number of students have opened accounts at U.S. Bank, which replaced LaSalle Bank as Northwestern’s banking partner this year.
Almost 2,250 accounts were activated with U.S. Bank during the past week, said Art Monge, NU’s manager of WildCARD and Vending.
And although many returning students switched from LaSalle to U.S. Bank last week, Monge said the demand for U.S. Bank exceeded previous demands for LaSalle accounts.
“U.S. Bank opened well over 1,300 accounts (between last Monday and Wednesday alone),” he said. “That’s something LaSalle couldn’t have done in even an entire New Student Week.”
Last spring, administrators decided Chicago-based LaSalle Bank was not flexible enough for the NU community.
And so far, the university’s new contract with U.S. Bank has been met with enthusiasm.
U.S. Bank, the nation’s sixth-largest bank, has partnerships with 22 other colleges, said Jeffrey Joehnk, manager of U.S. Bank’s NU branch. Still, NU students have shown more interest in opening accounts than students on any other campus, Joehnk added.
“I take that to mean that students are pretty supportive of the change and welcoming the change of banks,” Joehnk said.
For the past five years, LaSalle was NU’s on-campus bank. But last spring, when the bank submitted a proposal to renew its contract with NU, Monge said he and other university officials decided to make the switch because they thought U.S. Bank could accommodate NU students, faculty and staff better than LaSalle had.
“The key word was service,” Monge said. “LaSalle’s service was just not customer-friendly.”
Representatives from LaSalle were unavailable for comment Friday afternoon.
Monge said he received numerous complaints about accessing LaSalle’s NU branch, which was open from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. on weekdays, and about the transaction fees at LaSalle.
For example, Monge said the bank charged teller fees, and made customers pay for exceeding 25 transitions a month and using an ATM outside the Midwest. LaSalle also did not always inform account-holders of these charges, he said.
“We had a student in line (to switch to US Bank) who said, ‘I was never aware of it until I looked at my transactions,'” Monge said. “She had $160 in teller fees that she was never made aware of.”
By comparison, Monge said U.S. Bank will have longer weekday and weekend hours and only will charge for overdrawn accounts.
U.S. Bank also will offer more services to account-holders within the Norris University Center, Monge said. U.S. Bank’s full-service branch in Norris will house more staffers, including a financial planner who will give free consultations. This will help non-student members of the NU community, Monge said.
Once faculty and staff became aware of the change, Monge said, he received an “overwhelming” e-mail response in support of the switch to U.S. Bank.
Another factor in U.S. Bank’s popularity was its availability: though LaSalle has branches only in the Chicago area, U.S. Bank is located in 24 states.
The switch to U.S. Bank is convenient for students like Music sophomore Peter Debelak, who opened an account with U.S. Bank because it has branches in his Minnesota hometown.
Weinberg sophomore Hilary Hoffman, who lives an hour and a half from NU, wasn’t as lucky.
“LaSalle just built two new branches within ten minutes of my house, but there’s no U.S. Banks near me,” she said.
Hoffman said she still switched to U.S. Bank but disliked having to wait a few days between applying for an account and making her first deposit.
Joehnk said the delay is due to U.S. Bank processing applications off-site to cut down on the time applicants spend in line.
“We’re trying to have the process as streamlined as possible,” Joehnk said. “We’re really trying to minimize any impact it has on their life.”
Reach Tina Peng at [email protected].
