EAST CAROLINA UNIVERSITY SIGNS ON TO USE HIGHER ONE’S ONEDISBURSESM REFUND MANAGEMENT SERVICE
Higher One’s Refund Management Services Help Schools Increase Revenue Opportunities and Streamline Business Processes
NEW HAVEN, CT, OCTOBER 12, 2005 – Higher One, a leading provider of customized financial services dedicated exclusively to the Higher Education market, today announced East Carolina University (ECU) has signed on to use Higher One’s OneDisburseSM Refund Management service. ECU is the second Higher One client in North Carolina.
Higher One continues to see increasing interest in its OneDisburse Refund Management service. Higher education institutions look for services that help them decrease administrative costs while improving student services. This is increasingly true as institutions deal with budget cuts and rising student enrollment. OneDisburse Refund Management is a full service payments application that enables colleges and universities to offer their students more choice in how they receive money from the college or university, while reducing costs for the institution. Additionally, utilizing a refund management program helps the institution avoid the data security risks of maintaining paper or electronic records of student bank account information. Close to one billion dollars has been disbursed via OneDisburse for more than 26 Colleges and Universities. By adopting OneDisburse, ECU is choosing the only available Refund Management service that reduces administrative costs, streamlines business processes, increases student choice and improves the student experience.
ECU students will have the opportunity to use the OneAccount, a free FDIC insured checking account. If students select to utilize the OneAccount, their new ECU Debit MasterCard can be used worldwide everywhere MasterCard is accepted. ECU and Higher One expect complete setup of the program by the end of the semester.
“We are pleased to provide our services to ECU. This is the second school in North Carolina that has decided to sign on with Higher One,” said Dean Hatton, President and CEO, Higher One. “More importantly, we are happy to provide them with a fast and easy service that reduces administrative costs.”
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, 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.
“We are very excited about implementing Higher One’s OneDisburse system,” said Chuck Hawkins, Senior Associate Vice Chancellor for Financial Services at East Carolina University. “Under our current process, the majority of our students wait in line to pick up their paper checks, once the new process is implemented it will improve services, giving students a faster and more convenient way to access their refunds.”
Higher One provides every client with program management to ease the setup process. Once up and running, Higher One services include 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 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 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 setup of Higher One’s Refund Management service by the State University System of Georgia Board of Regents.
33 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 475,000 individual payments.
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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 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. Banking services are provided through an agreement with Horizon Capital Bank, member FDIC.