Study Blasts Campus Debit Card Practices

A study by the Public Interest Research Group has found a series of what it terms abuses regarding partnerships between colleges and debit card issuers that charge student card holders with fees for everything from simply using the card to make a purchase or accessing an ATM to loading money onto the card, using a PIN or overdrawing an account. The study accuses colleges of profiting from the deals at the expense of the best interests of their students, citing Ohio State's contract with Huntington Bank, which will pay the university $25 million over the next 15 years as one example.