Heartland Payment Systems Campus Solutions division has signed up four more colleges, totaling seven campuses, to manage their financial aid disbursement and refund management programs.

The colleges are: Davidson Community College, North Carolina; Cowley College, Kansas; the Bay Minette, Gulf Shores and Fairhope campuses of Faulkner State Community College, Alabama; and the Brooklyn and Manhattan campuses of Pratt Institute, New York. The new clients include nearly 18,000 students and more than $46 million in annual financial aid refunds.

Available as a standalone solution or integrated with Heartland’s Campus OneCard System, the Acceluraid financial aid disbursement solution simplifies a campus’ refund process by eliminating paper checks, increasing operational efficiencies, and reducing the costs, delays and operational hurdles typically associated with financial aid disbursement.

Benefits for students include more convenient access to financial aid funds without being charged PIN debit and other fees.

Students also receive a school-branded Discover prepaid debit card that is automatically loaded with their financial aid funds once they activate the card. They can then use their funds anywhere Discover is accepted, including many attended or unattended services on campus such as dining, vending, printing, bookstore, online bill pay, and free withdrawals from Heartland ATMs placed on campuses.

The students at these institutions will also receive customer support that covers forgotten PIN and passcodes, lost cards and questionable transactions. For campus administrators, Heartland’s customer support will help verify if funds were correctly distributed, if their students are using their Discover Card and if they transferred their funds to another financial account.