SPRING ARBOR UNIVERSITY , SIENA HEIGHTS UNIVERSITY AND AQUINAS COLLEGE
 TO USE HIGHER ONE’S ONEDISBURSESM SERVICE

Higher One Solution Provides Three Michigan Schools With Comprehensive
Refund Management Services That Reduce Costs and Increases Customer Service

NEW HAVEN, CT, August 16, 2005 – Higher One, a leading provider of customized financial services dedicated exclusively to the higher education market, today announced that Spring Arbor University, Siena Heights University (Adrian, MI) and Aquinas College (Grand Rapids, MI) have signed on to use Higher One’s OneDisburseSM service. The three institutions, all members of the Michigan Colleges Foundation (MCF), will be using a program that enables schools to save substantial costs and increase service by having Higher One handle all refund disbursements, related exception handling and customer service. It also provides students with the option of a free FDIC insured checking account called the OneAccount. Spring Arbor expects to complete implementation of the new electronic funds disbursement, card and banking program by July; Siena Heights expects to complete implementation this Summer; and Aquinas plans to have the program up and running in time for the Fall 2005 semester.

“We are proud to announce these three Michigan schools have chosen Higher One to provide refund management services for their campuses,” said Dean Hatton, President and CEO, Higher One. “Our OneDisburse Refund Management Service is ideally suited to schools like these that seek fast, easy setup, significant cost savings and a wide range of administrative and student services.”

“This new process will significantly advance the College, technologically, and we can now offer our students choices they have been requesting,” added Melissa Rauch, student accounts manager at Aquinas College .  “We’ve been very pleased with the level of support we’ve received from Higher One and this is a great way to offer improved customer service while conserving our resources.  We will not be spending time, money, and effort on printing checks and having students stand in line to pick them up. 

Higher One’s OneDisburse SM Refund Management Service is more than just payments; it streamlines the entire disbursement process. OneDisburse includes the handling of all disbursements, customer service, error handling, reconciliation and other time consuming functions – eliminating many costs associated with refund delivery for the university and increasing customer service for students. Higher One’s service is the only comprehensive refund management solution available today and features no setup costs, minimum involvement with schools’ IT systems, and a unique revenue-sharing benefit for the university. With OneDisburse students can choose any of three options to receive financial aid and other refunds: direct deposit to the free OneAccount checking account, 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.

“With Higher One our students can choose how they receive their refunds and our Business Office has a much more streamlined way to process those refunds,” said Gordon Eccles, Assistant Controller at Spring Arbor University .  “The implementation was comprehensive and well-executed, thanks to our project manager at Higher One.”

Spring Arbor decided to adopt Higher One after seeing the success of its programs at Kennesaw State University and the University of West Georgia , which won the 2004 Best Practices Award from the State University of Georgia Board of Regents. The schools also appreciated the quick (eight week) setup of Higher One’s program -- far less time than is typically required for other services in higher education – and that it required no changes in the university IT or student ID card systems.

At Spring Arbor, some 90% of on-campus students receive financial aid.  Each year the school issues 5,000 financial aid checks, but by implementing Higher One’s service, they expect to realize cost savings of $70,000 - $80,000 per year in hard costs (postage, paper, etc.) and soft costs (staff time, processing, etc.). The school may also extend the Easy Refund program to handle the 5,000 student payroll checks it issues each year.

Higher One provides every client with program management to ease the setup process. Once up and running, Higher One services including the management of student refund preferences; collection and archiving of ACH authorization forms; exception handling; refund returns; rerouting of checks; refund reversals; reconciliation and archiving; customer service; and online reporting of refund statuses.

“Higher One’s project manager has allowed the implementation process to be efficient and effective,” said Mary Kruse, Controller at Siena Heights University .  “We will save time, money and effort on labor intensive activities that will translate into offering out students better choices on how they receive their funding.”

Higher One offers two versions of its service: OneDisburse ID SM and OneDisburse Non ID SM. OneDisburse ID is a refund management program that is provided with a card that also serves as the Campus ID. The program is fully integrated with the campus card system. OneDisburse Non ID is a refund management program that is provided with a co-branded "refund card" that is not integrated with the ID card system. OneDisburse is available to smaller institutions - 5,000 students or fewer - through the non-co-branded "Easy Refund Card" platform

Higher One has been providing Refund Management services to colleges and universities 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 State 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.

31 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 $700 Million dollars through more than 475,000 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 choice 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 and 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 has helped its clients disburse almost $700 Million dollars through more than 475,000 individual payments. More than 250,000 students, faculty, and staff at distinguished public and private universities use Higher One's services through their ID or refund card. www.higherone.com.

 

For more information visit www.higherone.com. Banking services are provided through an agreement with Horizon Capital Bank, member FDIC.