Student Credit Cards and Cashless Lunch Payments

People apply for credit cards primarily for one purpose – to enjoy convenience and ease in their business transactions. Today, the concept of quick and easy transactions is now being introduced in schools and colleges in the US through the cashless payment systems.

If you’re not familiar with cashless payment systems, you may be surprised that this mode of payment does not involve cash at all. Students do not need to fall in a long anymore just to wait for their turn to pay. With this new payment system, students simply have their fingerprints scanned and check out with their lunches.

This new system uses biometric fingerprint scanners to identify and pull up the student’s account. Afterwards, the amount of purchase will be automatically debited from the student’s personal account so there’s no need to fumble for cash and wait for a change.

Other schools also use other devices such as credit card readers and bar-code readers just like the ones used in department stores and groceries. As a result, each transaction does not need to take longer than a minute or even just a few seconds.

According to the May 2007 survey conducted by the School Nutrition Association,- a non-profit group that represents 55,000 school lunch providers in the US, about 62% of 1, 200 nutrition directors reported that they’re already implementing the automated lunch payment system in their schools or a variation of the cashless payment system.

In the same survey, 4% said they would be implementing the automated lunch system within the next 12 months and almost 11% said they are planning to convert to the new system. Because of the positive response among school administrations and students, automated lunch payment systems are expected to become a part of the industry.

Automated lunch payments and Students

What are the advantages of using an automated payment system? For one, this new system hopes to decreases cases of theft among students. Since students won’t have to bring cash with them, lost-money incidents can be prevented.

Students can also enjoy eating their lunch or relaxing during their lunch break instead of spending precious minutes on the lunch line. The new cashless payment system also encourages parents to go online and check out what their kids are eating for lunch.

By logging in into the student’s account, a parent can track what his kid bought for lunch, what time he had lunch, and how much the meal cost them. Parents also have the option to transfer funds to their children’s account using through the internet.

About the Author

Samantha Wilson is a consultant for credit cards for students. For years she has written student credit cards articles that would help build student credit.
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