Card, mobile credential, payment and security
For University of Illinois students, February 28 will mark the end of a banking partnership between their university and TCF Bank.
According to a report by The Daily Illini, the university's partnership with TCF Bank will not be renewed once the current contract expires at the end of February. The decision to end the partnership means that there will no longer be a TCF Bank branch on Illinois' campus or in the Champaign-Urbana area.
TCF’s on-campus ATMs will remain operational until at least mid-May in an effort to ease the transition. TCF officials also state that the bank continues to make improvements to its mobile and online banking platforms, offering those students that bank with TCF additional convenience while eliminating the need to visit a brick-and-mortar branch.
Per the bank's official website, the TCF branch located on the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign campus will close at the end of business on May 18, 2015. TCF will continue to provide four ATMs located across the Urbana-Champaign campus, with one of the ATMs continuing to accept deposits for TCF account holders.
In addition to maintaining the ATMs and online access, students who hold accounts with TCF will otherwise not be affected. However, students who have their TCF Bank account attached to their i-card, the University of Illinois student ID, will no longer be able to use their student ID for debit functionality as of February 28.
Officials close to the i-card program insist that students will not be expected to close or switch bank accounts as a result of the contract ending. The only change is that students will be required to use a TCF-issued card rather than their university ID. The University of Illinois i-card website says that the program is currently negotiating a contract with a new, unnamed provider.
