So your college student needs a bank? Consider a credit union

Right about now there are a lot of college freshmen either starting classes or packing up the car with Mom and Dad to head off for school. And while it probably isn't the first thing on anyone's minds, eventually the question may arise: Where am I going to do my banking?

It's a question that probably comes about less these days because there are more national banks. Not to sound like I belong in an old folks home -- I'm pushing 40 -- but back in my day, I had a bank account at my parents' bank in our hometown, and it was a small, independent bank in Middletown, Ohio. There was no branch in Bloomington, Ind., so I wound up banking with the university's credit union.