UW’s financial aid disbursement partnership strives to give students their money fast and easy, but there are unclear fees that are not always taken into account.
In order to speed up the disbursement of financial aid to students attending the University of Wyoming, the accounts receivable department at the university partners up with Higher-One, a financial aid banking service, to get the necessary funds sent out to students in a more feasible manner. By doing this, the university hoped to administer an easier system for getting students the money they needed to pay for their education.
Higher-One assists in the logistics of getting college money to students, but it also offers banking services for those students who may choose to make Higher-One their main bank. The financial aid bank’s services are mobile check depositing, direct depositing and a mobile application for smart phones so students can monitor and make adjustments to their accounts away from home.
Though the services above are free of charge for students, the Branding Iron conducted a candid interview with the Higher-One customer service center to uncover some of their other charges.
When asked about ATM fees, the customer service representative stated, “As long as you withdraw from the Higher One ATM, there will be no fee [to the account]. If you use a non-higher one ATM, there will be a $2.50 fee on the Higher-One side, plus whatever fee the owner of the ATM charges.”
Students only have one Higher-One ATM located in the Classroom Building to make withdraws.
Other fees associated with Higher-One, listed on their website, are charges for an inactive account [six months without use], merchant based pin transaction, and a stop-payment charge.
If a student does not update their account, utilize provided services, or make purchases in a consecutive six month period, they are charged $10 for not doing so. Higher-One does warn the student that they will incur this charge, by sending them an email before the six months are up, encouraging them to use their account’s services.
Higher-One explains on their website they also charge a fee of 50 cents per transaction when students’ run their card as “debit” pin-based transaction. Students can also avoid this by making sure that they select “credit” when making purchases at stores with credit card machines.
Another one of the charges, listed above is the stop payment fee, shown on their “Fee Schedules” section of the website, www.higheroneaccount.com. A student wishing to cancel a check or an electronic transaction that they have made will be charged $24 to do so.
Though Higher-One does have fees applied to their client’s accounts, they still offer services to students that can be considered beneficial. As stated in the beginning, they offer ease of access, mobile options, and speedy payment for students that need to pay for their education in a timely fashion.
In trying to get further information about Higher-One, an attempt was made to speak with the Accounts Receivable Department within the University of Wyoming, but because of scheduling conflicts, the department was unable to comment on the Higher-One—UW relationship.
