@is it just me or... are you not linking to the right articles?

@please explain what the hell is everyone’s infatuation with off campus flex? you’re 18+ (in a majority of cases anyway), get a credit card and use that. it’s like getting free monthly loans, you get cash back or airline miles in the process, and you’re building your credit history (which’ll come in handy when you graduate and need to pay for real expenses).
and even for places that are cash-only or have minimums, flex still has no benefit since it doesn’t eliminate sales tax (like dining dollars on campus do) and there’s no financial incentive. you do however have to always be sure you have enough money deposited but make sure you don’t deposit too much since once you graduate…that money is gone. it’s effectively lacking all of the convenience and flexibility of cash.
further it seems unrealistic that many neighborhood joints will sign on to flex or won’t impose the same minimums since accepting flex will probably mean some sort of surcharges or administrative hassle for them.
and for those of you who say you’d rather use flex because your parents pay for it, why can’t your parents just give you the same amount of money and put it in a debit account/pay your credit card bills with it? that’s hardly a valid reason to restrict yourself to flex.