What even is the point of FLEX?

Most places on campus where you can get food, payment options you could choose from are Meal Swipes, FLEX, HuskyGold, Cash or Card. But, what is the difference between FLEX and HuskyGold? Are there better advantages of using one rather than the other?

To be quite honest, FLEX, in my opinion, is not worth the hassle.  I’m sure many other students could agree, as well.

Although FLEX is an easier and cheaper option for most students rather than purchasing a Meal Plan, HuskyGold practically does the same thing and it is much easier and quicker to reload. In order to reload your FLEX dollars, students must go to the MyHousing Self Service site, enter your desired amount and wait eight hours prior to receiving your money.  Before the beginning of the 22-23 school year, FLEX was not re-loadable and there was a $300 max limit. However, this has changed giving students a $1000 FLEX limit and could choose to have 0 meal swipes. FLEX also rolls from semester to semester but not year to year.

At the end of each spring semester, students may choose to use all of their remaining FLEX or donate it to BU’s choice of donation. Typically, it is some sort of food pantry. But, a lot of times if there is unused FLEX, students would rather use it all up than donate it. Sometimes, FLEX could have hundreds of dollars remaining.

“We would rather buy a bunch of snacks,” junior Mia Grant said in agreement with her roommate Ashley Harlan. “They won’t go to waste and if we are able to use up our FLEX, we will. Especially if we can get multiple items in bulk,” Harlan said.

HuskyGold is an instantaneous reload and is accepted at every dining facility on campus as well as campus laundry, the Library and the Bookstore. HuskyGold does not only just transfer semester to semester, it also rolls over from year to year, not allowing that extra money to go to waste. To reload your HuskyGold you can access it through the Husky Gold eAccounts portal or you can enter cash through the cash-to-card machines located in the card center and Monty’s.

“Husky Gold is just so much easier to use,” junior Maya Berger said. FLEX and Gold are essentially the same currency, but since Gold rolls over from year to year, it offers additional advantages.