Students walk through a minefield of hidden charges and paperwork with the new UND “Pride Card”. Join the Facebook group against it!
You can get an opt-out form in MS Word, PDF, OpenDocument, or ASCII Text.
The “Pride Card” decreases options and increases paperwork.
Students cannot get a cheque for their excess aid. The most flexibility the new system allows for is direct deposit to another bank account. Students who previously received their aid by direct deposit will have to do the paperwork all over again with the new processing regime.
The new paperwork, plus the additional layer of a bank in between UND and the students increases the delay in receiving funds, which hurts off-campus and aviation students, who have other obligations to take care of at the start of the semester aside from their basic student fees. The paperwork is primarily available online — which shuts out the technically illiterate and students with certain disabilities.
Students have to keep the debit card on hand even if they never use it, because all future aid disbursements will be tied to the card number instead of their student ID.
The card hides fees and profits from students’ fiscal inexperience.
$2 for any ATM transaction — even balance inquiries, except at terminals run by this foreign bank itself (none exist in North Dakota or Minnesota), on TOP of any other ATM fees charged. 50 cents for any transaction run as “debit” instead of “credit” at the checkout.
The card may not be a credit card, but they certainly don’t mind letting you overdraw your account with a $29 fee for the first time and $35 every time thereafter. Students, who are notoriously inexperienced with fiscal management, will fall into this trap in large numbers while HigherOne makes a profit.
Students who don’t do anything at all with the debit card will see their disbursement whittled away with $19 monthly fees after 9 months — so if someone gets the memo late, it’s sayonara for their money.
Students have rights that have been ignored.
Students have the right to be secure in their personal financial data. UND has ignored this and is sharing our names, addresses, and student aid amounts with a foreign company without our prior approval.
While I do not disagree that a debit card is a worthwhile option for students to have, to force everyone to go to the trouble of dealing with this untested new system, and to revoke standing agreements students have made to get their aid by cheque or direct deposit, is unacceptable. We deserve better.