SunTrust Banks Inc. and MasterCard Inc. April 27 launched an open-loop reloadable prepaid card that doubles as a student ID card.
The SunTrust Campus Card enables users to make payments at MasterCard merchants and make withdrawals from SunTrust ATMs. The prepaid account can be managed through a website, which will go live later this year. SunTrust and MasterCard also plan to launch an associated financial literacy website for students and faculty members.
The account management site would enable parents to add funds to students’s cards remotely. Students could also use the site to set up account alerts that would be sent by email or text message.
Some colleges that offer the card would also have the option to disburse financial aid payments on the card as an alternative to distributing paper checks.
“In research … administrators highlighted the added benefit of enhanced efficiency for their financial disbursement programs,” Ron Hynes, MasterCard’s group executive for global prepaid solutions, said in a press release.
Whitney Stewart, a senior vice president and senior payment strategy manager for SunTrust, said in the release that the card “empowers students with a convenient and safe way to pay for expenses and manage funds both on- and off-campus.”
