The University of North Dakota, which last year whined and moaned and finally added surcharges when students pay by credit card, is now flipping the entire system in the other direction.
This fall, UND is only offering students 97% of their excess aid through a “service” called the “UND Pride Card”. In a partnership of dubious legality (I’ll get to that later) with Texas-based Frost Bank, a Connecticut-based organization called “HigherOne” will be handling -in whole or in part- UND’s excess aid disbursement this year.
This disbursement will be meted out primarily, it seems, through Debit MasterCard accounts which HigherOne will collect merchant fees off of. Tally in all the other fees siphoned off by the MasterCard system and you get a service which in effect writes off up to 3% of your student aid into the pockets of foreign banks.
It’d be bad enough if that was the only problem. But given the history of reward credit cards, it would not surprise me if some percentage of that cut ends up right back in UND’s coffers. And that would be highly unethical, to skim yet further off of the students whose fees are already supposed to have been paid.
Whatever the case, it’s increasingly apparent that the University of North Dakota regards its relationship with the Bank of North Dakota as less than the mandate that it is. Grand Forks-based Alerus processes its cheques. Kansas-based TouchNet processes its credit cards. And now another company — and possibly the University itself — will be skimming cream off of excess student aid. Is that legal?
j5mc