Article Type: Media Hit

WASHINGTON — Two prominent Democrats asked the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to examine fees charged to college students who receive financial-aid disbursements on their debit cards.

A federal judge last week blocked key provisions of a restrictive law regulating voter registration drives in Florida, the same day the Department of Justice demanded that state officials stop purging the voter rolls.

College students are finding their scarce dollars eaten up by fees on the cards, which many schools are using for student IDs and to disburse financial aid, according to a new study by U.S. Public Interest Research Group.

“Campus debit cards are wolves in sheep’s clothing,” said NJPIRG Advocate Jen Kim. “Students think they can access their dollars freely, but instead, their aid is eaten up by bank fees.”

Consumer advocates have long criticized the amount of fees associated with debit cards. Most recently, a report by the U.S. Public Interest Research Group Education Fund found that hundreds of colleges have partnerships with financial companies to put a student’s financial aid on debit or prepaid cards that carry hefty fees. Under some of these deals, official student photo ID cards can double as debit cards.

About one mile from Rutgers University is a plot of farmland that, for some students, is the “Garden of Eden.”

A federal judge yesterday blocked Florida from enforcing key provisions of a new law that has been crippling voter registration drives across the state. 

Thought the student loan crisis was bad as it is? Now add hefty fees into that mix. Providers say students can avoid the fees that pile up when they elect to receive their financial aid on a debit card, but new research from a consumer advocacy group finds that these companies throw up roadblocks to keep the fee revenue rolling in, even as colleges make big bucks off their affiliations with these institutions.

Thought the student loan crisis was bad as it is? Now add hefty fees into that mix. Providers say students can avoid the fees that pile up when they elect to receive their financial aid on a debit card, but new research from a consumer advocacy group finds that these companies throw up roadblocks to keep the fee revenue rolling in, even as colleges make big bucks off their affiliations with these institutions. 

WASHINGTON — As many as 900 colleges are pushing students into using payment cards that carry hefty costs, sometimes even to get to their financial aid money, according to a report released Wednesday by a public interest group.