<prompt> Human: Forewarned, I am completely and utterly inept with money matters. The most money Ive ever hand to handle was 200 and it stayed in an envelope in my closet until the fateful day when... its too horrible to describe; lets move on.As the title says, I have just received some odd 3,000 in federal student aid money but am unsure how I should go about keeping it securewhere I should put it. The aid came with the option to open up a non-interest account with Higher One; now Im more than willing to open said account; however, I already have an account with a local credit union Ventura County Credit Union- if that helps in anyway that Im sure pays decent interest on deposits. My thought is that instead of letting the money sit in a non-interest account designed explicitly for the students who received the aid I could put it into my credit union account where it can garnish some interest on the side. Here are the problems as I see them though:1 Can I do this?---There was an option in which I could transfer the money to a third party bank. Ive no knowledge in the technicalities so in this case is a credit union a form of bank?2 Should I do this?---I feel this might seem shady to someone looking in maybe Im naive but the credit union building was, in my opinion, very upscale. Not the kind of place you expect a broke college student to have money A GIGANTIC PILE OF CASH THE WHOLE OF WHICH AMOUNTS TO A STAGGERING 50! such as if Ive pocketed the money and now dont plan on continuing in college.3 Would this effect my status as a broke college student? dependent---In all seriousness how would such a move affect my financial... report? Reputation? I dont have a job so Ive no income; as such Im listed as a dependent. Could this possibly do anything to my dependency status?3.a Could this and if so how would this effect the federal aid my mother receives?---Being in college, being a dependent and most of all having fuck-all in terms of capital has likely been, in part, a minor factor in my mothers ability to receive certain federal aids. Would putting this money into a credit union account cause her to possibly lose some of these benefits? My thought is next time she needs to report finances shell be required to disclose the money I put in the credit union account and that will inadvertently cause her to lose said benefitsThank you for your time if you took said time to read! And even more so if youve any advice to give!  <response>: Just deposit it in your bankcredit union account. Thats what pretty much everyone does with it.Its not enough money to raise any flags or change anything in any way about your aid.Deposit it, then use it to pay for schoolbooksfood. 