Freshman undecided major Jamie Griffin wishes there was a different bank to use at NIU. After some bad experiences with TCF, convenience is the main reason she is keeping her account open.

Since 1996, NIU has had an exclusive agreement with TCF Bank, which involves TCF serving as the official on-campus bank at the university. The initial five-year contract was renewed in 2001 and will be up for renewal in June 2006. The intent of the contract was to provide students with a safe and convenient banking option on campus.

Many students, however, have complaints with the bank. On www.livejournal.com, for example, 28 comments on an entry on TCF Bank were posted by members unhappy with the bank’s service. Only one of the entries is favorable.

Griffin had two checking accounts with TCF: one pre-existing account and one linked to her OneCard. The OneCard account was empty but she was planning to make a deposit when it was time to buy books. She accidentally wrote a check from the wrong account to pay off a bill from her community college and was subsequently charged $99 in overdraft fees. When she went to the bank to set things straight, the teller told her the bill had been honored and she had nothing to worry about.

When Griffin received more nonpayment charges from the college, she called her local TCF branch in Algonquin and was told she would have to speak to a manager in person. When she arrived, the manager sent her back to the DeKalb branch, because that was where she opened the account in question. At this point she owed more than twice the bill’s value in fees. In the end, she got the overdraft fees back and successfully paid the bill, but she was not happy.

“I’m a student at NIU and [TCF] is what we use here,” Griffin said. “But I hope nothing like this happens again. Why should I have to do all the running around when they made the mistake by misinforming me in the first place?”

Tamara Farley, director of treasury operations for the Holmes Student Center, favors the agreement between NIU and TCF. She said the free checking and check cashing services are important for students. She also said TCF was chosen due to demographics; many NIU students come from the northwest suburbs so they probably have a TCF branch near their homes.

From 1999 to 2003, TCF experienced the fourth-largest period of growth of any bank branch in the U.S. The bank also expanded its programming into campus banking, meaning NIU is no longer the only college in Illinois to feature TCF banks and ATMs.

Tod Matthiessen, the bank branch’s assistant manager, agreed with Farley that TCF is a good first bank for students.

Senior history major Jason Spiewak agrees TCF accounts are convenient, but he has had problems with the bank in the past as well. After having his TCF check card disabled due to an ATM freeze, the bank reactivated the card’s ATM capabilities, but with a catch: he’d have to wait three business days. It ended up taking six days and another visit to the bank before Spiewak could use his card again.

“If they would’ve just done that originally, I could’ve saved over two weeks of hassle with them,” Spiewak said.

Neither Matthiessen nor Farley have heard complaints from students. Matthiessen said customers have to sign to show understanding of TCF policies and all policy changes are listed in the customer’s statement, which is the way most banks handle policy changes. The contact phone number for customers with deposit accounts is 800-TCF-BANK (800-823-2265).