Seems like to pay a college for their tuition would only require about one swipe.

Can these loans and grants be used for anything beside paying tuition?

I must be missing something here.

Don

It was one check that I deposited into my bank. I used it for tuition, books, supplies, and living expenses. for the semester. I also had a part-time job.

IIRC, I did this three times and finished my masters.

I repaid the loan--the interest rate was much lower than GSL loans.

Of course, this was in the days before debit cards...

I always thought college loans and grants were to be used to pay the school for tuition.

Learn something new every day I guess.

Don

It opened with a scenario where a student receives his check and returns to the dorm. He announces "I got my loan!" and his dorm mates react with "All right! Let's party!" They all start leaving the dorm like they're going to go out drinking after the student cashes his check, but a voice-over says, "Wait! Here are some facts about your student loan...." Then the video pointed out the need and advantages of prudently managing the loan. The video concluded with the student realizing the awesome responsibility that came with his loan, so he says, "No, thanks, fellows! I'm depositing this check in my bank for my education!" or something similar. Of course his dorm mates are disappointed but the smile and look of satisfaction on the student's face shows he was prepared to use his loan wisely.

This was the 1980s...

...it's about the potential for sticking swipe fees onto every function where a swipeable student ID is used: library book checkout, copy & print services, campus bookstore, entering a fitness center or sporting event, bike-share programs, dorm access, "campus cash" functions like meal plans, off-campus financial purposes (basically local retailers, but how this interacts with financial aid requires more reading than I have time for at the moment) as well as basic financial aid for tuition. Plenty of swipes that may or may not be subject to fees, depending on what's in the contract between the bank and school.

From just the skimming I don't know if this is currently a problem, but if there aren't safeguards in place to protect students from a bank from abusing its fee structure, there certainly should be.

Not a problem.

US PIRG often forgets that there's a status quo. They assume that there's no cost to using credit cards, bank debit cards, checks, or cash. Not just "no cost at the point of service for students." No cost.

Let's start school-side, school as funding source. Direct deposit of fin aid. The reason is the same as any other direct deposit--IRS, employer, etc. Fewer workers, faster turnaround time, less opportunity for checks to be lost or stolen. I'm not sure how widespread the obligatory deposit of the full amount to a student-ID-linked card is. Hard to use that kind of card for rent. Some money comes linked to campus-based uses, such as books or research, though.

Okay, let's look at merchant-side, school (or others) as sellers.

Cash is expensive. It slows down transactions and increases labor costs and can be inconvenient when you're trying to break a $20 and all you have is 1 10 and a mess of change--and then, having given out your change, your primary sale is a $0.55 cup of coffee. And, from time to time, cash tends to vanish. Cash, bad.

Credit cards and debit cards are charged to students indirectly. Books, coffee, shirts are more expensive because of them. The school I was at held off a price increase by investing in better POS devices: it went to a smart card, which the university wanted for its own reasons, and implemented a cash-deposit system so students could use their smart card "like cash." It was a large school and, yes, students ultimately paid for all the tech. Except that it actually cost less than cash. It wouldn't have worked on a fee-per-transaction basis since most of the swipes were for less than $2. (The secondary school I work at now has precisely this system.)

Now let's look student-side, from the consumer's POV.

Students using all plastic still paid in higher costs. And if you used checks that increased transaction time that you'd inevitably be billed for and, when I was in school, there was a per-check fee and a monthly fee. If you put the money in savings and your balance was too low, there was an account fee for that.

Still, you could always use cash. That would avoid the check or bank fee. But if you lose $50, it's lost; you lose your card, odds are the clerk would notice that the face on the card wasn't yours--and if you reported it whatever balance you had was safe. It's not like cash is risk and cost free, either.

The real downside was that students could use their smart card stupidly. Yeah, they could withdraw all their money (still could, to be honest) and blow it all in the first week of school. But cards are less money-like. It's easy to get carried away and drain the sucker early on and then be on emergency rations for the remaining 13 or 14 weeks of the term. (I think this is the bigger problem, to be honest, but it's not a US PIRG thing--students are pure and good and kind, and all things bad are the administration's fault. Can't blame student foolishness on the admin, so blame who can can for what you can.)

It's a US PIRG press-release concerning a US PIRG report advocating for students.

expenses and my wife always says, "Get the debit card, it's sooooo much easier...." - well sorry, but the debit card is $12 PER MONTH USER FEE!!!!! We only take out $500 a year or so, so that's 1/5th of that going to card fees. I don't mind the extra work to send in my receipts if it's between that and paying $140 per year, which completely negates the savings of the tax fee anyways.

Just say NO!!! Many times there is a choice and if there is ever any fees, don't do it.