We support reforms to the financial marketplace to curb bad practices by banks and lenders.
U.S. PIRG recently released an in-depth report, “The Campus Debit Card Trap,” on banks and companies who are in the business of disbursing federal student aid money on debit and prepaid cards. They looked at nearly 900 card partnerships between colleges and banks and financial firms which impacts over 9 million students, or over 2 in 5 (42%) of all students nationwide.
Some of their findings after looking at
- Industry leading banks and financial firms tout that upwards of 70%-80% of students use their cards after a few years of marketing.
- Fees can be steep and frequent for students using the university-adopted cards, including a variety of per-swipe fees, inactivity fees, overdraft fees, ATM fees and fees to reload prepaid cards.
- Access to student financial aid funds placed on debit cards can be subject to limited availability of “convenient” fee-free ATMs for student loan withdrawals despite U.S. of Education rules. Students end up paying fees to access their aid.
- Of banks, US Bank had the most card agreements, at 52 campuses with over 1.7 million students. Wells Fargo had card agreements at schools with the most students; its contracts were at 43 campuses that have over 2 million students.
- The largest financial firm player, Higher One, has card agreements with 520 campuses that enroll over 4.3 million students.
Have you used one of these products? How was your experience?
they are all ripoffs and they know it and dont care. I used higherone for my college aid and let me tell you getting your money can be tricky. Avoiding fees takes a conscious effort because they set it up to easily rack fees up. They do this to students of all people . scum
Higher One is a rip-off because if you don’t use their machines that’s another charge. When there machines don’t correctly read your card you will standing at (ATM) for at least 20-30 minutes trying to access your funding and Call them “just to be told that there’s no Hold” told to use outside (ATM);we waive the charges which turns out to be a lie! You are limited in getting all your funds off the card but if you choose the paper preference it takes another 14-days to college aid!!! This is another way for big companies to prey on struggling college students “Scam Artists” on a larger scale