Higher One Refund Disbursement Program Helps Lamar University Quickly Restart Financial Refund Process

NEW HAVEN, CT – In the wake of Hurricane Rita, Higher One, a financial services company that provides refund management and banking services to higher education institutions, has been working with Lamar University in Beaumont, TX, to help students receive financial aid payments as quickly as possible. With the school’s systems now up and running, Higher One’s proprietary refund management and banking services enable students to receive their refunds no matter where they may have been relocated to. Through the University’s Cardinal OneCard, a university-based ID/debit card, Higher One is able to offer Lamar students quick and easy access to the financial aid refunds that are due to them from the University. While students were not able to return to campus for an extended period of time following Hurricane Rita, they were still able to use their Cardinal OneCard to access their free OneAccount checking account through any ATM or make purchases at millions of merchants worldwide.

With Lamar’s nearly 10,000 students scattered throughout the region due to Hurricane Rita, they found comfort in the fact that they were able to access their refund money often less than 24 hours from when the University released the funds to Higher One. Increasing numbers of colleges and universities across the country are looking to move to this type of refund management program.

“We chose to use Higher One’s refund management services because their system allows students to receive refunds in a timely manner and access funds from almost anywhere with their Cardinal OneCard,” said James Rackley, associate vice president of finance at Lamar University. “If a student has been relocated to Dallas, they can still gain access to their money. While this is a small part of a much larger situation, we are happy to be able to help our students to the best of our abilities.”

“At such an unfortunate time, we are happy to see that our services will make it much easier for students, no matter where they are, to get immediate access to their money without having to pick up paper checks or wait for ACH’s to clear,” said Dean Hatton, President & CEO, Higher One. “We are taking extra steps to help the administration at Lamar make sure that their systems are working and running smoothly. It is tragic enough that students are displaced across the region. The ability for them to have access to these funds as soon as possible is crucial given the situation.”

Financial aid refunds are often generated when there is a residual amount of money left from a student’s financial aid after the institution collects tuition, room and board, and fees. Similar to how colleges and universities work with a payroll company to streamline employee payments, they work with Higher One to streamline the financial refund process. Higher One’s OneDisburse Refund Management Service is more than just payments; with it the entire disbursement process is simplified. OneDisburse includes the handling of all disbursements, customer service, exception handling, reconciliation and other time consuming functions – eliminating many costs associated with refund delivery for the college and increasing customer service for students. Higher One’s service is the only comprehensive refund management solution available today.

With OneDisburse students can choose any of three options to receive financial aid and other refunds: direct deposit to the free OneAccount checking account with immediate access through their University branded OneCard, ACH to another bank checking account, or a paper check. No matter which method the student uses, Higher One handles the entire process, making the payment and managing any associated exceptions or customer service needs.

Another unique feature available through Higher One’s service is that students can receive money from friends and family directly into their OneAccount, which they can then access using their OneCard. With the free and simple Send Money feature, a friend or family member can easily send money electronically from any bank account. This feature is a great way to get money to the student fast, without the hassles of sending a check or cash, or paying to wire the student money.

Higher One has been providing Refund Management and banking services to colleges and universities, and their students, across the US since 2002. Higher One’s program at Sam Houston State University in Huntsville, TX generated $240,000 in net cost avoidance in the first semester alone, and after subtracting the initial costs of establishing a card office – produced about $400,000 in gross cost avoidance for the year. The University of West Georgia and Kennesaw State University have both documented substantial, measurable impacts on the institutional operations and were presented with the “2004 Best Practices Award” for their implementation of Higher One’s Refund Management service by the State University System of Georgia Board of Regents.

Thirty-three Colleges and Universities across the country have signed with Higher One to use the company’s Refund Management Services. Since September 2002, Higher One has helped its clients disburse almost a billion dollars through more than half a million individual payments.

About Higher One Focused exclusively on higher education, Higher One provides refund management services to higher education institutions and banking services to members of their community through a card based solution. Higher One’s integrated solution helps universities reduce administrative costs, streamline business processes, create new revenue streams, increase student customer service and strengthen the campus community. Higher One’s refund service, OneDisburse, provides students with more choices and better service for receiving financial refunds. Higher One also offers a suite of banking services called OneFinance, which includes the OneAccount, a no minimum balance, no monthly fee checking account, the OneCard, a Debit MasterCard® card for ATM withdrawals, purchases, and exclusive features such as “Send Money”, Easy Refund, and Campus AutoLoad for stored value programs. The OneFinance and OneDisburse solutions can be integrated with the institution’s ID card or provided through a separate “refund only” card.

To date, Higher One has disbursed almost a billion dollars in refunds for its college and university clients. More than 375,000 students, faculty, and staff at distinguished public and private institutions use Higher One’s services through their ID or refund card.

For more information visit www.higherone.com.