sorry if this is a repost, but i was just wondering which places actually accept the meal plan on campus (the BASIC account, specifically). I was especially wondering if the on-campus tim hortons' and quarters accepted the meal plan, on the basic account.
and i know pizza pizza accepts the meal plan.. but that's the freedom account if i'm not wrong? correct me if i am please

thanks in advanced,

ali

All places on campus accept the meal card (including on campus Tim Horton's and Quarter's for food purchases). I know Timmy's uses the basic portion, I hate Quarter's food so I've got no clue which part that comes off.

The off campus places are listed at http://hospitality.mcmaster. ca/Loc...Off_Campus.htm which come off of your Flex Plan... though I've sometimes had it come off the normal part for some random reason.

sweet timmy's uses the basic portion thanks!
i checked that site earlier too, and it says quarters as an off-campus vendor that accepts the freedom account, but i thought to myself that's weird, so wanted some first hand knowledge (i've trid their food once, and have loved it!). thanks for the help david!

Well, Quarter's isn't part of Hospitality Services, it's part of the MSU. It's quite likely that it uses the Flex portion for that reason. For some reason I feel like it never used to, but I haven't been there since First Year. Hopefully someone else can clarify that for you

Yeah, David, Quarters didn't accept the meal plan in the past. If they do now, that's good - it kinda makes sense. You sure Tim's is off of Basic, though? It was Flex when I was there.

All Timmies and pizza pizzas around campus take the BASIC portion. They're located in places like the student center and Commons. I think there's something like 16 Tim Hortons on Campus! Not sure the exact number. Keep in mind though, the Tim Hortons on Campus only provide a limited number of items compared to their normal restuarants off campus. They don't provide any of the sandwiches, only donuts, bagels and such. The Pizza Pizzas basically only provide personal pan pizzas. Also, there's a great smoothie place in the gym that takes it so don't miss out on that! I always wanted the frozen yogurt/jamaican patty place in the student center to take the meal card. When I asked them 3 years ago, they said they were trying to get it. To this day, they still don't accept it. Boourns.

Oh, right right, I wasn't thinking of the little Tim's stations in the Hospitality-run operations, that would be coming off Basic. I actually think that when the standalone Tim's opened in the MUSC in its first year it deducted off of Flex initially, but I'm pretty sure that got changed after some discussion at the Student Dining Committee.

An exception to the limited Pizza Pizza offerings would be if you ordered it for delivery to rez - that definitely used to come off of Basic as well, which was a pretty sweet deal - although there was discussion for a long time about changing this over to Flex, so I don't know if it actually ever happened after I left.

As for the little frozen yogurt place in the MUSC not taking the card - you probably can't blame them. The terms of the deal with Hospitality in order to be able to accept the card aren't very good (which is probably why Quarters held off). Essentially, Hospitality gets a cut of the action (a percentage of the sales charged to the card), so unless they're confident that accepting the card is going to get them a lot of additional business that they wouldn't have otherwise received, it's probably not worth it to them. A place like Boston Pizza would be able to take that risk and absorb the extra costs if it didn't work out - a little place like that stand probably wouldn't.

how do you check your balance?

After you purchase food using the card, your balance shows up on the monitor. Additionally, you can go https://mealacct.mcmaster.ca/ and check it there.

When creating a PIN for the first time ever...what do you put under account?

Your account is your student number (7 digits)

I've activated my meal account but when I check the balance, it shows that I only

have $2460 left. I chose the meal plan A (light) so shouldn't the balance be

$2500? I am so confused why the $40 is gone!!! Can someone explain it for me

please?

The account history says:
Transactions (Passes)
Date Time Amount Bal Units Trantype Terminal
---------- -------- -------------- --- ----- --------------- --------
2008/08/28 18:40:30 -40.00 1 0 (102)ADJ ACCNT (00053)BUSINESS OFFICE M

Where do you check the balance on how much is left on your meal card??

What link?

http://mealcard.mcmaster.ca/acctnfo.htm

@ Jason

There is a $40 fixed charge (non-refundable) included when you bought your meal plan. According to this budget planner (http://hospitality.mcmaster. ca/mea...008_2 009.pdf ), you are actually supposed to start with $2460. I don't remember having my $40 ripped off my meal plan in first year, but basically, now you can't actually use the $40 to buy anything.

Sorry, it's all part of Mac's secret plan to rip us off .