Many of you have already made your first tuition payment; apologies if this is coming too late! If you’re getting to the point of making college payments, you need to make sure the relevant bank accounts are attached to your 529 plan. If you’ve been contributing to the plan, it’s pretty likely that yours is already. But your student’s probably isn’t, and if you want money from the 529 distributed to them (here is a previous post on why you would want to do that if you think it sounds crazy to send these sums of money to your student), then you need to link their bank account to the 529.
And don’t delay: Many 529 plans require the bank account to be associated with the 529 account for 30 days before funds can be distributed to it.
The other question people are asking around now is, “Can I use my 529 to pay for off campus housing?” The answer is yes; however, the amount you can use from your 529 is capped at the amount your school allows, even if your student’s housing costs more. Most schools post this amount on their websites; contact your school directly if you can’t find it.