My son is in his second year of college. He lives in an apartment with 2 other baseball players and there is no meal plan on campus, so they have the added expense of buying groceries.
The first year, he had an account and used the debit card for expenses, but it was too time consuming and frustrating monitoring the activity so that he didnt go over his limit. Those fees are not good!
We are in our second month of a prepaid Visa. A certain amount is deposited on this card every Friday...and he has one week to stretch it out.
The great thing about this card is he gets a text message every day showing his balance...and I get emails regarding his transactions.
Working out pretty good so far.