Beware!

NBC News reports.

College-Branded Banking Accounts May Not be Best for Students

The beginning of the school year offers banks and credit unions a great chance to get college students to sign up for checking accounts and debit cards, which is why many financial institutions now partner with colleges and universities in hopes of landing lifelong customers.

But experts caution that the school-branded accounts may not offer the best terms.

“Some of these co-branded accounts could provide good value to the students, but that’s not always the case,” said Rich Williams with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB). “Financial institutions often pay schools millions of dollars in exchange for this exclusive marketing arrangement.”

Forty percent of all college students now attend a school that has some kind of bank-related marketing agreement, according to a report last year from the U.S. Government Accountability Office.

The nonprofit Center for Responsible Lending (CRL) studied these co-branded accounts and concluded that they offer “few benefits” to the students who use them. (The report Overdraft U, was released in March.)