Fox News Business has taken a look at university IDs that also double as prepaid cards. Fox dubs the prepaid aspect as “the latest twist on a long tradition of college campus ID cards serving a dual financial purpose.”

But according to Taran Lent, vice president of product management and development at provider CardSmith, student IDs have been doubling as payment cards on college campuses for decades.

The process started in the late 1980s when many college student IDs worked as closed-loop cards, allowing students to pay for meals, laundry and other services on campus and at select merchants off-campus.

And in the last few years, some universities distributed financial aid refunds to students via prepaid student IDs. Through the mid-to-late 1990s, many banks linked PIN-based debit accounts to student ID cards, said Lent.

The story also discusses the launch of prepaid cards by SunTrust and American Express at two universities which allow students to make purchases anywhere MasterCard (for SunTrust) or American Express are accepted.

Read more here.