Our school use to disburse checks, now they give all student monies (loans and grants) to Higher one and then then the student can decide how they want to receive their money from Higher One. You can have Higher One send you a paper check which takes a long time. Or you can fill out a form to give to Higher One, in which they transfer the funds into your personal bank account (this takes longer than they say and I have heard students recommend not doing this. They say Higher One claims they didn't receive and it took much longer and caused lots of frustration. Lastly you can get Higher Ones bank card and it's basically instantly available.
So my first complaint is that money is going through this company instead of to me. I'll take that up with my school and student government.
I have had several mishaps with Higher One. My biggest complaint is the fees, their is really no consumer freedom. You have to use a credit transaction or they charge you $0.50 every time. Unfortunately there are places that only accept debit so I'm not going to use them.
Then theres the ATM fees, yikes. They say that you may get your money out of the ATM for free, no problems right? Well here's the catch, they only have one ATM and its on campus in a building that is locked after 4pm Monday - Friday and both Saturdays and Sundays. So you best be getting your money 8-4 Monday -Friday. If you don't, you hit with a Higher One fee of $2.50 and $3.00 from the other bank.
Well I forgot to mention that Higher One allows the one and only ATM on campus to run out of money. So you walk half way across campus to find out its temporarily out if funds. This has happened atleast twice in the last month. So I notify school and call Higher One, after waiting a long time and repeating my information to every person I'm shuffled around to, I finally get to a manager. I tell them the ATMs out of money and so they report that and tell me "Well you can drive to the Folsom campus where we have another ATM". I then let her know that that campus is over 25 miles each way from my house. She then replied, "you can go to another bank and we will reimburse the fees". So both times that's what I've done. Here's the catch, you have to call in the next day, wait forever and then request the fees reimbursement. So after that, I look at my online statement to find out they only will reimburse THEIR FEE of $2.50, you stuck with the other $3.00 fee.
Don't bother calling back to complain because they don't care and won't do anything. Over Spring break I need money for rent and that Friday, again no money in ATM. I'm highly agro at this time and call them again. I spoke with a young kid who said " I know, I'm sorry about that. If you need your money, the cheapest way is to use the ATM at a store that gives cash back. That way it will only costs you $0.50". The only problem is most stores have small limits on cash back. So I'll use more in gas and time going to several stores trying to get the five hundred dollar limit that has been set by Higher One.
I asked him why they don't provide more free and accessible ATMs for their customers? He replied, "you should go to your dean and request more". Um that's not my job and I don't work for Higher One. If I want to take a cash advance, it's a large fee.
Don't worry Higher One, I'll be talking to the Dean and student government, about ditching Higher One. I can't believe students started this company. From where I'm standing, it's as corporate as it gets and I'm sick of being ripped off by Higher Ones high fees, lack of accessible ATMs and corporate greed. I'll wait for a hard copy of my student loan next semester.
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