By Deanna Tran
By Deanna TranLouisville Cardinal
“It’s just another card to fatten up my wallet,” said Tuan Vu, a junior international business major, concerning the new HigherOne debit cards the University of Louisville issued to all students this past summer. On the contrary, sophomore mechanical engineering major, Matt Salmons, said he found the new cards to be really convenient. “I can use them anywhere or get cash if I need it.”At the start of the 2006 fall semester, U of L switched its way of issuing financial aid, residual disbursements and other refunds to students from paper checks to debit cards. Through HigherOne (a company dedicated to student money management), a bank account, a debit card and the U of L OneCard were given to each student at U of L. Sean Glass, founder and chief marketing officer of HigherOne, said he truly believes in the product. Since its debut, U of L students have expressed a wide field of opinions on the card. Some students like Salmons favor the U of L OneCard for its ease and convenience. Others share the same opinion as Vu. Van Luong, a sophomore biology major, simply said, “I don’t like [the U of L OneCard].” Despite being unwelcome by some students, the HigherOne card solution is just what other students have been asking for, said Jason Tomlinson of the office of the vice president for finance. “For several years, students have come up to me asking for some type of electronical means to direct deposit their financial aid to their own personal bank accounts,” he said.Some concerns have surfaced over why the university could not directly deposit financial aid and other refunds without opening up HigherOne accounts for U of L students. According to Tomlinson the only way the university could do that was through payroll, and not every student is employed by the university. However, through the new HigherOne student accounts, Tomlinson said direct deposits can be appropriately transferred to other personal accounts.Problems dealing with the old system of issuing paper checks also propelled the switch to debit cards. After sending out over 12,500 checks to students at the beginning of each semester, the university had to deal with problems ranging from returned checks, validation, outdated addresses, lost mail and check cancellations. “The whole process was just long,” said Tomlinson.Salmons said one of the reasons he found the cards to be convenient was because they were a lot faster than the paper checks. Yet, both Luong and Vu experienced mailing problems with their new debit card. Luong said she lost her card in the mail, while Vu said he threw his debit card away, assuming it was another credit card junk offer in the mail. Some students have confused the debit cards as credit cards, but Glass said the easiest way to give students the most convenience and allow them to use the card at a wide variety of places is to use the MasterCard network. “It is really important to note that the card is not a credit card. We don’t want to promote student credit card debt,” said Glass.”I think U of L just did a bad job notifying students about the card,” said Vu. Luong said she heard about the change in financial distribution last semester, but it really was never made clear to her as to how the process was going to work, which contributed to the problems she experienced when activating the card.Glass said HigherOne is working to revise the activation process and to make it easier to use. “We’re looking to add ways to provide customers information about their account or refund via their cell phone and other ways to continue to improve service.”Tomlinson said the university used an array of means for contacting students about the card, ranging from mail, e-mail and even an auto-dialer to verify new addresses. He said it is expected that the set-up period of receiving the cards and activating them will require some work and time, but after that students should have no problems.Students still have the option of simply receiving a paper check in the mail, however, every student will still have a bank account opened up by the university because “there’s just no way to predict what people will need it for,” said Tomlinson. The cards are designed to handle not only financial aid, but other reimbursements and refunds such as parking tickets, lab fees and refunding tuition for dropped or added classes.The response from students to the U of L OneCard has been a mix of confusion and delight. Although some like Vu and Luong find it to be a burden, others like Salmons find it to be time saving and convenient for their busy college lives.”HigherOne continues to listen to our customers and try to improve our services,” Glass said. Tomlinson said students who are having trouble with their accounts can contact the Bursar’s office or visit online at http://www.louisville.edu/vpf/bursar/higherone/ for more information.U of L is one of 21 university clients of HigherOne, a company started by three Yale University students whose focus for the company is on higher education. For more information on HigherOne, visit www.HigherOne.com.
