U.S. Bank is now responsible for all financial aid disbursements, and they also control our Bakersfield College identification cards. As students, we should be concerned that the card, known as the OneCard, holds all of our private BC information.
Upon receiving your card in the mail, which took way too long, you register it online and decide whether you want the basic account – that is good just to get your financial aid disbursement – or the deluxe account, which gives you access to numerous other features, such as getting money transferred in from a third party or having direct deposit set up with your work in order to have your paychecks sent directly to the account.
There was no need to offer two options on the card. It was a no-brainer to get the deluxe account because it doesn’t cost more than the basic and offers the other features.
Seriously, the only good thing about this card is the logo that SGA picked for the background.
U.S. Bank is just a glorified Western Union. Most transactions are done online and most locations barely have any workers at them.
The OneCard is both your student ID and your debit card. On the back of the card are two stripes, one for college transactions like printing in the library and the other stripe is for normal everyday transactions. This can be confusing and raises questions of security.
Before, when we had the Kern Schools card, it was a Visa. Now, the new card is a MasterCard. Some people feel Visa is accepted in more places than MasterCard, and might not like the change.
The fastest way of getting your financial aid is using this card. You can also get it deposited to any bank account of your choice and even still receive a paper check. These last two options are not as quick, but are offered. Most students don’t want to wait a week or two to finally get their financial aid in the mail or transferred to the bank account of their choice.
That’s a good thing about the card, but most students opened a Kern Schools account to get financial aid when they first started at BC. Most of those students have kept their Kern Schools account, but with the OneCard, have had to open an account with U.S. Bank, also, something not everybody wanted to do.
The cards have no photos on them and that could lead to problems down the road. Having a picture on the card provides a sense of security because it at least would be clear whom the card belonged to.
The numbers and name on the card aren’t embossed. They are just printed on there so after a while of taking the card in and out of your wallet, it is going to rub off. It took two times taking it out from my wallet for the debit logo to start rubbing off and chipping. That’s unacceptable.
Replacement cards are $5 if you get it at a U.S. Bank location or $15 if you get it directly from the school. Most students would opt for the $5 method – but there aren’t many U.S. Bank locations in town, so they might pay more just to get the card quicker.
I can understand wanting to have one card for everything, but this is not the way to do it. BC needs to open its ears and listen to the students because faculty, staff and administration aren’t the ones using these cards.