The Journal

Issue date: 11/9/06 Section: News

The Higher One debit card is one of the new options for students receiving financial aid refunds. The card can be used like a regular debit card.

Students will have new options for receiving financial aid refunds for the spring 2007 semester. Currently, students can only receive refunds via paper check, but now will be able to get direct depositing or a debit card.

Students get a refund when their financial aid outweighs the balance on their account. For example, students can apply for an independent student loan or scholarship and then get back whatever money is left after tuition and other fees.

Vickie Fredrick, vice president of finance, said students will start receiving their refunds the third week of school next semester.

Janice Neal, bursar for Webster University, said this December every student will receive a packet in the mail explaining the new refund options, including a Webster University/Higher One debit card. The packet will explain how to log on to the Web site http://www.websterdebitcard.com, activate the card and then choose a refund option: check, direct deposit or debit card.

Neal said the purpose of the new direct depositing and debit card is for students to get refunds quicker. She also said students have been asking for this option for several years.

"Students need their refunds as soon as possible," Neal said. "Students will able to get the refund a lot faster, within one to two days."

If students want to use the debit card, they have to start a bank account with Higher One. Higher One is a Connecticut-based, FDIC-insured refund management company to higher education institutes, through Texas-based Frost Bank, Neal said. The credit limit on the debit card is the same amount as a student's refund; he or she cannot spend more than that amount on the debit card.

"It works like any debit or credit card," Neal said. "It can be used anywhere MasterCard is accepted, also at ATMs."

Neal said there had been problems in the past with student refunds. Checks were stolen, some were mailed to one state and ended up in another or checks were simply lost in the mail. Direct depositing sends the money directly into a secured account, Neal said.

Students who receive refunds each semester have mixed feelings about the new system. Junior Robert Royer, an accounting major, said he feels indifferent about how he receives his refund, but doesn't want to constantly receive banking offers from Higher One.

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