“Mohave Community College was looking for a better and faster way to distribute financial aid to students. In addition, the college wanted to establish an identification card system for security purposes,” said Lynn Cundiff, the college’s vice chancellor for administration.

Up until now, MCC has distributed financial aid refunds to students by handing out paper checks. Students wait in line at the bookstores on campus to pick up their refund checks. MCC wanted to expedite this process to improve the student experience so the College considered offering students the ability to have these funds sent electronically to a third party bank account.

“MCC looked into an automated clearing house program but because of the charges that the bank would apply to the college and the students, Higher One seemed like a much better option,” Cundiff added.

Ultimately, the Institution decided to contract with Higher One, the New Haven based company specializing in the disbursement of refunds to students.

“The college chose Higher One from the companies that offer this type of financial service because they were by far the most highly recommended,” said MCC Chancellor Michael Kearns. “Higher One was able to perform quickly and provide the college with an implementation team to help our personnel.”

Before the start of the fall semester, every student at MCC will receive a card in the mail. This card enables each student to go to a special website and select from multiple ways to receive his or her refund. One of these choices is to have the funds deposited directly into the OneAccount; Higher One’s no minimum balance, no monthly fee, FDIC-Insured checking account. Should the student choose to have the refund sent directly to the OneAccount, the card the student used to access the special website becomes a Debit MasterCard® tied to the account.

MCC decided to have this card be much more than simply a refund card for the students. It will also be the students’ campus ID cards. Students will be able to use this card to gain access to on-campus events.