Students now have two options to re-load eXpress dollars on their student IDs: stopping by the card office or transferring money online with a $1.50 processing fee.

Business Office Director Pam Peterson said fliers were mailed out to all students about three weeks ago advertising the new feature, and this process enables parents and students to add money to their eXpress account remotely.

“We think it’ll be really helpful because the (card) office isn’t always open, but students still need money on their cards,” Peterson said. “So, now if you’re at Davanni’s on a Saturday night and you realize you need more money to pay for your food, you can (add money to your eXpress account) on your phone.”

Peterson said there were extra cost of manually entering eXpress credit into the system.

“We had 10,700 students make an entry form for eXpress money last year. That means 10,700 times we had to pay someone to come in and enter those, check with each student’s accounts and have armored cars pick up any cash,” Peterson said. “By doing this online, we cut down on a lot of expenses—and that helps keep tuition down if we’re not paying for those extra steps.”

Peterson said she has only heard two complaints so far about adding money to eXpress accounts online.

“Two people weren’t happy about the $1.50 processing charge,” Peterson said. “But that’s a pretty small number, and you can always come into the card office and add money through paperwork.”

All of the university’s card operations are run by The CBORD Group, Inc. St. Thomas had access to the new online feature as soon as CBORD made it available, and faculty and staff are also able to take advantage of the function.

“It was kind of tricky because we didn’t have a test run; as soon as CBORD offered the option we could start using it,” Peterson said.

Junior Shandi Buck said the online feature will be useful for students, but it doesn’t persuade her to open an eXpress account.

“I think it’s a good idea for students on campus,” Buck said. “I probably won’t use it since whenever I am on campus I just use my debit card.”

Freshman Jason Sansburn said he thinks the new way to add money to student accounts is a great feature and will be useful when he needs extra money.

“It’s more like life outside of college,” Sansburn said. “More and more banks let me put money in my account and pay bills on my phone. It’ll be cool to have that option when I’m not on campus.”

Anastasia Straley can be reached at stra0669@stthomas.edu.