Every year, nearly 40 percent of all college students around the world receive a form of payment from their school to help with their studies, living arrangements, and more. Unfortunately, the majority of these payments are still made via cheque, forcing students to endure long wait times and take up the valuable time of campus office administration and staff. At college, students should be spending their time focusing on studies and preparing for the future, not worrying about finances. Prepaid is the solution.

Prepaid cards offer mobility, flexibility, security, and ease of use, making them the perfect financial vehicle for students. With prepaid, students no longer have to wait in long wait lines. Universities can instantly load payments, refunds, or credits onto a student’s prepaid card, which can then be used on or off campus like a debit or credit card. A prepaid card serves as the perfect payment vehicle for students and parents purchasing school supplies, groceries, equipment, entertainment, and more.

A student’s time at college and university is spent working towards a degree, but it’s also an opportunity to achieve personal growth and learn about life and responsibility. There are over two million students enrolled in full-time and part-time higher education programs across Canada, many of them making key decisions about their lives, professional goals, schedules, and finances for the first time. Typically, college/university is the first time a young person is on their own. In many cases, they have never had to manage their own finances, and some don’t even have bank accounts. While credit card companies and predatory lenders might suggest otherwise, this is not the time to get weighed down by more debts from loans.

Students with no jobs and no money needs to learn the importance of building strong financial habits and learn money control without needlessly jeopardizing their future financial independence. Prepaid cards have built-in spending limits and, unlike credit cards, you can only spend what you have available on the card–there is no debt. A prepaid card is a mobile financial tool that helps students skip out on repeated trips to an ATM or bank. Given that most students travel on foot, this is a big deal! Prepaid cards can also serve as a form of student ID, especially if it’s personalized with a picture.

The advantages of switching to prepaid aren’t reserved only for students, either. Cheques are expensive to produce, run the risk of being stolen or misplaced, and commonly suffer from printing errors and mistakes. School financial offices would be far better served by using prepaid for payments such as scholarships, grants, and refunds. With prepaid, administrative offices can easily and effectively keep track of these payments and ensure that they are doing the best job at taking care of their students.

Prepaid programs also open up great business opportunities between universities and local businesses who are looking to create new rewards programs. Businesses can incorporate discounts and loyalty rewards into the university prepaid cards in order to bring students to their business, driving money into the local community while also offering students special deals. It’s win-win.

Today’s students are tomorrow’s future, so isn’t it about time we moved away from using payments from the past? Prepaid programs are the payments our students need now to prepare them to succeed in the future.