By Danielle Cortes, Staff Writer
Is it Higher One, or Liar One? As some students may have already received notice the refund credit cards have already begun arriving and beginning to ask in what form do we want our refund from financial aid.
These cards are designed to help return the fund more quickly and efficiently without financial aid representatives having to worry about a stampede of students lining up to ask whether we have received our refunds yet. Of course, we want our refunds as fast as possible because we need to buy our books and supplies, and for some of us our refund is what we depend on to accomplish these goals. Unfortunately, there is always a problem when it comes to refunds because it can take weeks for all of our financial aid to finally go through or there could be a miscommunication as to what paperwork we have submitted. Going through this third party to receive our refund has created another problem in wait time.
I for example registered the card thinking it was for my stipend pay job. On my eLion account, I have my system saying that I should be receiving a certain amount and have yet to hear as to when I will be receiving it. I also noticed that when I had registered for the card, that it gave me all the fine print details about there being a fee for using other ATMs besides their company ones. This for me causes a problem because there is not always a HigherOne ATM available. I also did not like that I would be charged a fee for using it as a credit/debit card at stores either. This is my refund money, that I am owed back for school supplies. There should not be a fee in order for me to purchase something when I already put in the time and good grades for it. I honestly believe that the good old fashion way of receiving our checks fourteen days after the start of the semester is the best. This way I know that I will not lose one cent of it when I go to actually use it.
I mean, of course, there will probably always be a problem here and there when waiting for my refund. At least if I’m getting a check from the school, then I can: speak to an actual person about any issues, know that my check will be coming straight to me, and I will not worry about there being any fine print about fees.
