Banking for NSU students made easy

They might function much the same as pre-paid credit cards or bank debit cards, but colleges making use of them claim declining balance cards are not the same.

“These are not sold,” Nicholls State University ID Card Director Allison Ayo said of the Colonel Card. The combination identification, access and spending card has been used on campus for 10 years, but is gaining in popularity among students and especially parents that want to control the spending habits of those they are to sending to school.

Ayo explained that declining balance card holders are able to apply a cash amount to the tool at the beginning of a semester or add to it anytime during the year, either in person or online.

The card offers its holder the ease of swiping it through a detector to purchase items at the campus bookstore, cafeteria, in vending machines, laundry facilities or other locations where cash transactions can also still be made but might not be an option at the moment. Off campus, the card is honored at Wendy’s restaurants and Textbook Rentals in Thibodaux.

“We encourage students to use the Colonel Card,” Ayo said. “This way, parents know where their children are using it and it is a good budgeting tool.”

Many colleges contract with banks and secure the combination identification and bank cards. The schools will then charge students a usage fee and benefit from placement revenue offered by banks.

Several companies including MasterCard and American Express rolled out prepaid student identification cards in 2011. Various cards area accompanied by a variety of fees and usage regulations.

That is not the case for Nicholls, Ayo said. “That is why we have the declining balance,” she said. “They cannot draw cash from it take money off the card. We do not have a bank behind it, so we are not making money having it.”

Prepaid student identification cards have received praise because if the card no longer carries a balance, the transaction is denied and overdrafts avoided.