Accounting & Finance | News

Bradley U and Salt Lake CC Buy into Blackboard Payment Cards

• By Dian Schaffhauser
• 08/24/11

Blackboard's payment card program is gaining traction among institutions of higher education. The company just went public about two schools--Bradley University in Peoria, IL and Salt Lake Community College--that have signed on for BlackboardPay. This service integrates student campus ID cards with usage for financial transactions. Both institutions deployed the application about four months ago.

BlackboardPay is a prepaid account that automates delivery of financial aid credit balances, student payroll, and other forms of campus-related credit balances and allows the cardholder to view transactions and do funds transfers and bill payments online. According to Blackboard, the company doesn't receive any revenue from student-assessed fees. The program works through the Allpoint Network, a national automated teller system that charges no fees for standard transactions. The cards can also be used anywhere Discover cards are accepted. Student accounts are insured by FDIC.

Institutional customers use the service to streamline their student-related payment processes and reduce the expense of cutting and processing checks. Cards can be branded with the school's colors and logo.

"Salt Lake Community College has been searching for years for an ID/debit card option for its students, but nothing fit what we were looking for until we heard about BlackboardPay," said David Raiford, manager of campus card systems and services at Salt Lake CC. "Our goal was to provide an option for students to receive their refunds faster and easier, make purchases with their ID card anywhere, and help minimize operational costs in distributing refunds. With BlackboardPay, we are able to meet these goals."

Pratima Gandhi, controller at Bradley U, concurred with that positive assessment. "We’re excited to offer BlackboardPay to our students as a safe and secure way to access their funds and protect them from banking fees," she said. "The new solution helps us promote banking responsibility for our students and, through the integration with our current campus card, provide them with a convenient one-card option."

More information is available at blackboard.com.