HomeTo be online or not to be online? It is no longer a question.
Taking your card system online is not only inevitable it is imperative. Being available to your ID Card users 24/7/365 with StudentLink offers them the highest level of security, service and convenience available.
Convenience
Students and parents expect services at their fingertips. They communicate online, bank online and shop online. It makes sense to them to manage their campus accounts online as well. Students don't spend their campus dollars between 9 and 5. They order pizza at midnight and do laundry at 2 am. A convenient, immediate deposit tool is essential. It enables students to be self-sufficient and maintain their accounts 24 hours a day. This convenience for them means more deposits for you.
Security & Compliance
By processing all of your credit card transactions online you centralize your transaction history. Thus you have a comprehensive system to track, which credit cards were used and to which accounts the deposits were received. Federal Regulation-E requires that regular statements of activity be sent to all cardholders. Are you sending any statements? Are you sending paper statements? Or are you sending email statements? Offering online regulation E compliant statements can save all of the work and cost that goes into this activity.
Appropriate Use of Resources
Today's campus card offices do much more than issue ID cards. Most card office staff are involved in troubleshooting and repairing card readers, working with third party vendors, creating reports, marketing the card program, training cashiers and orientating students, in addition to issuing ID cards and collecting deposits. An online card program frees staff to pursue other advances for their department.
Everyone else is doing it
We hate for this to be a justification but in fact it is. Students and their parents are careful when picking a university, considering things like curriculum, accessibility, cost, and safety. Having PCI compliant, online deposit features available can show parents you are forward thinking and concerned about making their lives easier and safer. Parents want to know their children are accessible and easy to care for at any distance, they want to know they still have influence and control over where and how their child is spending their money. It is also vital to students that their school be technologically up to par with other colleges and universities, they want to have the same privileges and opportunities as their peers.