Hello.
Has any parent used this service to help pay tuition? In essence, it sounds good to pay in monthly installments without any interest, but upon researching this, I think they issue a debit card for any tuition overpayments, but then charge fees for using the card, inactive accounts, etc… I’m a bit wary that they are charging fees when technically this money should be deposited into our bank account, and used for school expenses. It’s not fair that this money that needs to be used for school is lessened because of the fees. Also, have heard that funds take forever to be available.
Any help would be appreciated, thank you!
I don’t know what program of Higher One you are referring to, but using a Higher One card was an option for any refund my daughter received from her school. We had 3 choices to receive any refunds paid. 1) have it deposited by ACH into a bank account, 2) pick up a check at the bursar’s office or 3) activate the Higher One card. Yes, you are right, to use the Higher One card at any ATM would have a charge to withdraw money, like $2-3 for each withdrawal. The advantage was pushed as it was the fastest method to get a refund.
Well, I chose the ACH deposit into MY account and if it took longer it was a day or two. We actually had a pretty big refund as my daughter joined a sorority and had to eat there, so her meal plan was refunded to me.
I did not use the card to pay tuition. The school did offer a payment plan, but you could pay the bursar’s office directly in 3 payment; I think there is a $30 fee to set up the payment plan
@twoinanddone Thanks. We were looking at the payment options today (as opposed to a Parent Plus loan with interest) and on the school’s website it had a link to pay tuition with Higher One-they would deduct it from my account & pay the school, no interest. I think you could stretch out payments over a year. Any overpayments (such as meal plans, etc…) would be refunded via card. I do not want to be charged by Higher One again for using my money on the card. Maybe I’ll call the bursar’s office tomorrow, I just wanted to know what I was getting into using this 3rd party company. Appreciate your help!
There are quite a few banks that have associations with colleges. The banks pay a lot for the easy access to fresh blood (the freshmen). Some schools went so far as to have the banks issue the student ID cards that then served as a ‘convenient’ ATM card as all the financial aid, refunds, etc went right to the card, and of course there were convenient ATMs all over campus. TCF bank was one. There have been some (required) revisions to these affinity arrangements between banks and schools. The CFPB was involved.
It can be a good deal if they are letting you pay without interest and with the fee for a monthly payment plan. This daughter’s monthly payment plan fee was only $30, but at my other daughter’s school it is $100/semester, so that’s quite a few ATM charges before it would be a better deal to pay the $100 fee.
I also wanted any refunds to go to my account, not to my daughter’s Higher One card. I was the one paying for the dorm meal plan and then the sorority meal plan so I needed the refund to pay the new charges…