By Joshua Encinias
Published on October 24, 2007
This semester PJC implemented a new means of financial aid disbursement. The new program is called the PJC OneCard. It is used for financial aid returns, money from dropped classes and optional banking.
Advertising for the card went on for months leading up to its inception, yet countless students have little idea what the card is and what it offers.
In four months, only 30 percent of OneCards have been activated. An explanation from PJC’s comptroller, Jackie Padilla, sheds light to an otherwise discouraging number.
The 30 percent activation equals 4,713 students. As of Oct. 16 there have been 3,423 students who received leftover financial aid, and 79 percent of them are using direct deposit via the OneAccount.
Higher One’s relationship manager, Rob Makowski, proclaimed this figure a “truly amazing success” in an e-mail to Padilla.
Emma Meyer, a PJC student, echoes Makowski’s sentiment.
“It worked for me. It makes one less thing I have to worry about,” Meyer said.
Meyer’s husband has been in Afghanistan for 545 days. While on duty, he has been transferring money to his wife’s OneAccount. Meyer paid her tuition with the OneCard, using the money her husband sent electronically from overseas.
Where the card alleviates stress for some, Kimberly Grant sees the card as useless ornamentation to her purse.
“I don’t even use the card. It’s decorating my wallet and will be a good thing to have when I need to break into my house,” Grant said.
Overall, the OneCard advertising campaign has not been met with its expected success.
The new student information center sent out OneCard information to all students via their PJC email accounts. Almost a year into PirateMail’s inception, 25,000 accounts have been created and fewer than half have been accessed.
PJC has mailed multiple notices of PirateMail’s existence to students. The latest was a postcard sent the weekend of Oct. 12.
The students’ general lack of interest in PirateMail may explain the underwhelming response to OneCard’s advertising campaign at the bursar’s office.
“Anytime you begin a new program there is going to be problems,” said Brenda Carrier, PJC bursar. “We had a little goof-all getting the funds to our athletes. Normally athletes come right to our window and get their funds. With it going to the card it became a little confusing because some of their cards went to their home addresses and they could not receive their funds. ”
Carrier is optimistic about the program despite the work the bursar’s office still goes through to process information from financial aid to the comptroller’s office.
Carrier said, “This process is new, and I’m giving it a year for the kinks to work out.”
The one kink PJC financial departments and Higher One representatives alike are harping on is the “swipe and sign” policy.
“This is one thing to be aware of: if you ever use your card, use credit. It’s safer and there’s no charge, and there’ll never be a charge for it,” said Higher One’s student liaison, Chris LaConte.
When a student chooses credit they’re covered by MasterCard’s Zero Liability Insurance, in which fraudulent charges, overbilling and stolen cards are protected.
But in the case of Fantasia McDaniel, Higher One was slow to act.
One evening McDaniel was at the Handle Bar in downtown Pensacola. Turning away from her purse to dance for a few minutes, all of McDaniel’s money and cards were stolen.
McDaniel immediately reported the stolen card to Higher One and it was to be blocked until further notice. Yet $66 from her OneCard was used at a Shell station three days after the block was to have been in place. Since then the issue has gone unresolved as McDaniel has yet to follow up with Customer Service.
Dealing with fraudulent charges is one part of the student’s responsibility.
Those who enroll in OneAccount will be responsible for the account after graduation. In other words, this is a real bank account.
Students who already have a bank account and are graduating in the next year, may want to choose the mailed check option.
The idea to create student banking through a school’s ID card was Higher One’s initial plan before adding the distribution refund option.
In 2000, Higher One masterminds Miles Lasater, Mark Volchek and Sean Glass were students at Yale. The three friends noticed a rise in online banking, and the little effort banks were putting into meeting the needs of students.
In six years the company has allotted 21 school customers and 1 million individual customers that include current and former students.
Every time a customer makes a credit transaction, 1 cent goes into a student fund. This loose change amounts to an average of $30,000 a year.
Higher One will work with student governments to fund programs and activities. Most frequently Higher One will donate an iPod to be raffled off at school functions.
Aside from the benefits Higher One offers student governments, 0.08 percent of credit purchases go to PJC. At every quarter of the year, Higher One will net its services fees from the credit purchases going towards the school. Padilla hopes this will make a difference in the school’s dues to Higher One.