For the more than a decade, students in need of banking services on Boston University’s campus saw only one color: green.

Not the green color of money itself, but bright green Fleet Bank signs posted every few hundred feet.

Until last month, Fleet was the only bank branch located on campus. But all that changed when Century Bank moved in across the hall and put up its big red signs. Now BU students have two options for banking when they enter the George Sherman Union: Fleet on the left, Century on the right.

GAINING THE COMPETITIVE EDGE

Century Bank was brought in to lease university property to give students an additional banking option, said BU spokesman Colin Riley.

‘Ideally, having more than one provider on campus gives options to students to compare services and best suit their needs,’ he said.

Representatives from both banks agreed and said they want students to open accounts at the bank they think has the best offers.

‘They’ll see that I offer something that is better than the competition because what I tell them is make sure you compare and you have to understand the differences between any services that you are receiving,’ said Jose Umana, manager of the Century branch at the GSU.

He said Century is meeting its goal of the number of accounts they would like to have open at this point in the year. Employees will continue to work to increase their accounts, he said.

‘We have to be realistic,’ he said. ‘This is the first time we’re coming to the university and we knew there was another bank here, established.’

The other bank, Fleet, does not release information about the number of accounts it obtains, but the branch is doing well and welcomes Century’s competition, said Alison Gibbs, Fleet Bank spokeswoman.

‘There’s certainly room for competition in the market,’ she said. ‘Competition is a good thing and that’s how we view it.’

STUDENT CHECKING ACCOUNTS

Students can open any type of account they wish; most opt for free checking with a savings component, Gibbs and Urmana said.

Fleet offers a student-specific checking account, Gibbs said. The account has no minimum balance and no monthly fee for the first year. After the first year, the account costs $5 per month or $3 if the customer arranges to have his or her paycheck directly deposited into the account.

Gibbs said another student-friendly feature of the account is an automatic summer dormancy feature. The bank offers this feature so students can return home to states that do not have Fleet branches without having to worry about closing the account or paying fees for inactivity.

Century also offers a no minimum balance, no monthly fee checking account, which remains free of charge for the entire time the customer has the account. Century’s account is targeted toward students, but is available to everyone, Umana said.

Both accounts come with a card that can be used for ATM debit or for credit purchases. Fleet’s card has a Visa logo on it; Century’s has MasterCard’s, and the debit cards are accepted anywhere those credit cards are accepted. This allows the customer to make a purchase and have the money deducted from his or her checking account, without having to worry about paying a credit card bill at the end of each month, Umana said.

Customers can also make a purchase at a store like CVS and get ‘cash back’ to avoid making a trip to an ATM or paying to use another bank’s ATM, he said.

Withdrawing money from an ATM other than the bank’s own is one way customers can lose money. Many banks extract a fee when customers use ATMs not affiliated with their bank.

According to Umana, Century allows students to go to another bank’s ATM four times a month and after the fourth time, charges $1 for each transaction.

Gibbs said Fleet does not charge if a customer uses an ATM other than Fleet’s, but the customer still might end up paying more.

‘If you use another bank’s ATM, they [might] have an ATM fee, but that’s not a Fleet charge,’ she said, noting that each fee is about $1 to $1.50 per transaction.

Jessie Chan, a third semester School of Law student, took the ATM charges into consideration when she decided to close part of her Fleet account and open an account at Century.

Chan said she has had a checking / savings account with Fleet for more than a year.

‘The checking account charges me $5 a month and Century gives it to me for free,’ she said. ‘I think [Fleet is] more convenient than Century, but I don’t want to pay the fee.’

Chan said she frequently travels to New York City, where she can find Fleet ATMs in the city and even on the highways on the way there. Chan said she has not seen any Century ATMs outside of Boston and she does not want to have to pay a fee to get money out of her account when she is not in Massachusetts. She has decided to keep her Fleet savings account but transfer the checking account to Century.

BUILDING CREDIT, SAVING WITH ATM CARDS

Building credit history is another advantage of opening an account with Fleet or Century, representatives said. Since a student’s name is on his or her account, the Visa or MasterCard will also be in the student’s name, allowing the student to build credit history.

All students should be concerned about maintaining good credit, Umana stressed.

‘Especially now, the way we live, your credit history is so important,’ he said.

Umana said landlords can check credit before renting an apartment to a tenant, car companies can check it before loaning a car and some employers can check a person’s credit before hiring.

Additionally, Fleet’s debit card component features promotions from different stores each month, Gibbs said.

‘There are also programs like Museums-on-Us,’ Fleet’s Gibbs said. ‘One month of the year we make museum [admission] free.’

Former sponsors of this program include the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston and the Museum of Modern Art in New York City.

OVERDRAFT PROTECTION

Umana said one of the benefits of opening an account at Century is that all students, regardless of prior credit history or experience, are automatically approved for overdraft protection.

‘It works almost like a credit card,’ Umana said. ‘We’ll put in your account $500, which is a credit line. You can access it when you write a check or when you go to an ATM.’

Umana said a student with $100 in his or her account would be able to spend up to $600 by tapping into the overdraft protection. However, he cautioned against using the protection for a trip to the mall.

‘The overdraft is basically for emergencies,’ he said. ‘That’s what I try to emphasize for my customers because the interest is high it’s 18 percent.’

Fleet also offers overdraft protection, which Gibbs said normally requires an applicant to prove he or she is credit-qualified, but is more flexible for students and handled on a case-by-case basis.

‘They’re going to look at various factors – how much are you putting into the account, history of if you’ve had an account before, if you have a job and you’re depositing into the account,’ she said.

A checking account without overdraft protection is subject to a flat charge of $25 if there are ‘unavailable funds’ to cover a withdrawl, Gibbs said.