college pushing students to use credit cards??

Hi, I just got a e-mail from my college stating they are sending me a credit card. They had a long e-mail explain what it is and some new college policies.

My college this summer started their own financial institution commonly known as a bank.
So now they created a new policy that if you are getting finical aid or using the workers left behind program which is the gov will pay for classes to switch your career. Well the policy states that we will first pay for classes then we will get refunded if you got any aid awarded. They will from now on refund your money by paying it to your college credit card account. They already opened me an account without my approval or anything.

The e-mail then states that the credit card is being shipped to you now. You should get it in 6 days.

They then said to not throw this away otherwise you won't get a refund of your money if you got any aid.

so now since I get federal aid to pay for classes. I already paid for classes. Now I got to use this credit card to refund my money and then transfer it from my colleges bank to my own bank account.

I would wounder why is this? And is other colleges other then mine doing such a think?
It seems like they are pressing people to use a credit card or debit card and not use cash.

Could this be some low level start of accepting eletronic payment as the only way of payment?

If this is so... I could hate to figure out what will happen if a bad storm comes by and knocks power out for a week. How would people make any purchases if the power is out in most parts of the city?

I would like to know if anyone knows about other colleges doing this. I would like to know what you think they are up too?

I personally think they are pushing everyone to use a credit/debit card instead of cash. My dad told me in 1970 in his eletronic engineering class. A visitor told them about future technology. They wanted everyone by year 2000 to use nothing but a credit/debit card. He said that you won't see the face of a dollar by year 2000. My dad now said that he thinks they had trouble pushing the credit cards and debit cards. But he thinks that this is what they are trying to do. Make everyone use a card or eletronic payment then printing money for you to use. Printing paper money does cost more then if they had a card that has magnetic strip with data of your bank account where you can use this to use as cash.

would like to hear what you have to say about this.

reply to post by computerwiz32


My guess is that they are doing it for purposes of accountability. Most welfare agencies now issue credit cards with balances on them, so that they have a record of all purchases, and can make sure that the money is not used for anything other than legal purchases. The food stamp program now issues credit cards with preloaded balances, and I believe that any government aid could be preloaded on your card, and again, used only for tuition and valid fees . In the past, there have been problems with students using financial aid for purchases, not connected to tuition and valid items.

These are actually DEBIT Cards, not Credit Cards. There is a big difference between the two, both financially as well as legally. Any government agency issuing any kind of aid, does so through the issuance of a DEBIT Card.

Second, although it does allow for better tracking, accountability, and such, however, it also comes with FEES just like any other Debit Card. Every transaction that is made using it generates approximately .49 cents of Revenue to the Bank of the Merchant Account you used it at. Every transaction that you made using it generates the appropriate fees to the Bank that issued the Debit Card (displayed on the back), according to the Cardholder's Agreement that was sent with the Debit Card.

The Banks have pushed these really hard on everyone. Those .49 transactions add up. Those ATM Fees add up. This is big business.

Welcome to college though. You'll be hard-pressed to find a single University in America that doesn't issue Debit Cards.

reply to post by fraterormus

These are actually DEBIT Cards, not Credit Cards.

Yes, the government issued cards are debit cards, but many colleges, in conjunction with an affiliated bank, are rushing to push credit cards into student hands, before the Credit Card Accountability Responsibility and Disclosure Act of 2009 takes effect in February of 2010. After that, strict rules take effect regarding the issuance of credit cards to anyone under 21. Of course, issuing these cards involve risks on the part of the banks, but if you remember how we got into this financial mess, banks take risks that most of us would not take.

reply to post by fraterormus


Ya, it's a debit and credit card. it's a mastercard. My college opened their own bank.

It's their very own bank. They issued this credit/debit card for me without signing anything or agreeing to it.

This dosen't have preloaded aid. It's an account with my college at their own bank. They make us first pay out of pocket for classes. Then if you get any aid awarded they will reimburse you by putting the refund in your account with their bank only. They won't allow you to transfer that money back to your own bank account until the semester ends.
Before what they did was that you had to pay for classes. Then after 1 week of the start of classes they will then refund your money if you got full aid awarded to you.

Now they created their own bank and have it setup that you pay your classes first. If you got aid awarded they will refund that money to your account with the college bank. It will sit their until the semester ended. They said if you get an F or failed any courses they can automatily grab your money to cover the cost of the classes you failed. Then they will be able to refund your money to your own bank account with the bank your with.

It's something new that just starting this fall. They spend this whole summer setting the system up. This fall start the new system and policies.

what you guys said does make sense. I was just worried if this was some sort of control the government is trying to push.

The card I get I can use it as a debit card or a credit card and it's not limited to be used with my college. I can use it to purchase anything. Yet even if you have no federal aid or any aid. You still will be getting this card. Even when you didn't even signed to open an account with them. They also are going to use it as payment method.

This means if the college owes you any money they will give you that money to your bank account with them. They won't directly give that money to your own bank account anymore. It used to be that way.

reply to post by computerwiz32

I personally think they are pushing everyone to use a credit/debit card instead of cash.

I have a daughter in college, this is her senior year. Several years ago when she first applied for the various grants and the loans (because the grants were far short of tuition), she began receiving not just offers for credit cards, but the card itself, in her name.

She never applied for a one. All she had to do was to activate them and, boom! She would have had several thousand dollars to dig herself into debt with.

Kids exiting school these days are almost all immediately in such debt that they will spend the first decade of their post-school years just paying it all back. The very notion of paying with cash... or perhaps, living within our means, is taken away from us just by the basic cost of existence.

Is it a conspiracy? I dunno... but one thing is damned certain; it is the banks that profit from a society that MUST live in constant debt to survive.

...

reply to post by redoubt


yep, well my thoughts about is that they want us to get used to using credit cards and other stuff that dosen't use cash or any paper money form. I think that this could be the starting of creating a new national id card system where the card will be used as credits. like a credit card but also has so much information about you like your health insurance,car insurance.

Right now I know of ohio university they are doing research on new computer memory concepts. They already tested one that works.

It's a small piece of plastic that is magnetized. They said you can get on a small stick of it about 20 terabytes. that is just the size of the rf chip of this plastic. So it's really small and in that size it can hold 20 terabytes of data. That is alot of data.

If you take such memory technology and put it in the card you can now how so much information on that card. I wounder if this is the start of getting us on credit cards.

So we will pick up a habit to use the credit cards and then they will bring up the idea of the national id card once they can mass produce this plastic memory material.
They then will slowly get us off the credit cards and use the national id card. They will use marketing tactics to tell people that this card is good, you can cross borders and do many things. Because all of your information will be on a single card where you can use this card for everything.

I mean I know about that plastic memory technology and I think it's going to be mass produced by 2011. Just knowing that this small chip can hold 20 terabytes of memory opens up more possibilities to use it. I mean I can imagine that it could be used on just one card to hold a huge majority of data.

So I am just saying I thought that this was some way to get our society to get used to using a credit card rather then using cash. I seen it at every gas station. I seen signs like any purchases under 1 buck you have to use cash no credit cards. I then see many people buying a 1 buck candy with a credit card and the cashier would deny them asking for cash only and then the customer would yell why? are you too cheap? Like they don't understand that retailers have to pay a transation fee for every credit card they accept and any purchases under 1 buck will not give them a profit or will be little because of the transaction fee.

So I am just saying I see many people using credit/debit cards all over. I think at some point everyone will be using a credit card or debit card. When that happens people will get used to using credit cards/debit cards and forget about how we onced use cash. Then the next trend is to push people to get a national id card where you can use it to speed up everything. It will have all your information like bank account and purchases, health insurance and much more data.

Once we get that plastic memeory that cna hold 20 terabytes this will start cards that holds more data. Now if the gov does push people to use a national id card we won't think twice about it because we will only see one side of it. The good side. Like using it as a passport and as a credit/card and debit card and at the same time can be a ID used also as a drivers license. I mean if the card can hold at least 20 terabytes of data you can imagine that card can hold huge amounts of data.

This is what I am thinking.


Also I know about credit card companies sending cards in the mail with your name on it and ready to be used without any sigature.

What I was saying was that my college is a education institution and now a finicial instiution.

The college just opened up their own bank. Not making a contract with other banks or using a commercial bank to create credit cards.

My college has their own bank that they made. They automaticly opened an account for me with them.

I thought their is some legal laws that they must have the person that opens the account to sign something that proves that person owns that account and any fess associated with that account the account holder will pay for it.

I mean when I opened up my own bank account with nonprofit bank. They had me sign something that said that I will pay any fees associated to this bank account. I was 19 at the time. I never used a credit card till this day and have no credit history.

I was told that you are supposed to use a credit card to buy something and then pay it back to the credit card company. That will create a credit history for you.

reply to post by computerwiz32

Ya, it's a debit and credit card. it's a mastercard. My college opened their own bank. It's their very own bank. They issued this credit/debit card for me without signing anything or agreeing to it.

I suspected that is what is was. That is a VERY lucrative venture for them. With the 21% interest rate that you are probably going to be charged, and their late fees, as well as other fees, they are just watering their chops for you to start using it.

reply to post by ProfEmeritus


But how are they allowed to open up a bank account for me with their own bank. What I mean by their own bank meaning they own this bank. It's not like a chase bank where the college makes a contract or an agreement with them. Yet they open a bank account with my name at their own bank. I thought that it's illegal to do such a thing. You need to sign something when an account it open. I thought this is how the IRS tracks your money on how much your making and where it's going etc. So I thought it's illegal to open an bank account for someone else without them signing something.

Not doing financial aid but I do my college (university of Alaska Anchorage) Has debit cards but basically what you do is put a balance on it and you can use it for vending machines or I think the dining hall. But other than that I haven't heard of them making people have their own cards.