Myself and others have just found out that we have a Free Student checking account. Apparently it was implemented a few years back when our ex presidents own children were attending school and no one bothered to mention it to us, Here is my concern, currently we offer no other free checking product, and there is no apparent system in place to monitor the student checking accounts to verify they are in fact still students and still qualify for the free checking. It appears that these individuals could and probably will maintain those accounts forever without the possibility of service charges ever being imposed long after they have completed their schooling. My concerns are that this practice could be viewed as preferential, especially when there is no monitoring of the existing account holders to verified their continued student status. What we will end up with is many customers well past student age receiving free checking when other customers of the same age are paying a monthly service fee. Are my concerns valid and if so I need something to hang my hat on to take this to tbe new president to convince him otberwise.

There should be something in the disclosure for this product, stating that the account is free to students or other qualifications for the account. If the customer no longer meets the qualification for the account, then they should be transferred to another product they do qualify for.

I'd do a review of the number of accountholders in this type of account that you have. After ensuring that the disclosures for the qualifications for the account include the points that SusanL made, consider a mailing of the existing or modified disclosures to this effected customers requesting verification of student status. If the customer no longer qualifies or the failure to provide verification will result in the reclassification of the account, not less than 30 days from the mailing.