WASHINGTON, Aug. 15, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- More than 120,000
students are now participating in BlackboardPay™, a
prepaid card program that simplifies the delivery of student
federal financial aid, Blackboard Inc. (Nasdaq: BBBB) announced
today. By enabling students to receive financial aid on their
current student ID cards, BlackboardPay™ eliminates
an estimated $2 million per year in
student overdraft and PIN debit fees based on average fees for the
total number of students now using the solution.
BlackboardPay offers students immediate access to their
financial aid and work study funds while reducing schools' expenses
associated with distributing paper checks. The solution was
introduced last fall in collaboration with First Data and the
Discover® Network.
The Money Network®-Enabled Discover® Campus Card helps protect
students from excessive fees and eliminates the need to wait in
long lines to receive paper checks or for an automated clearing
house (ACH) transaction to clear in their bank accounts. Instead,
funds are available on the day they are disbursed and held in
FDIC-insured accounts.
"We're excited to offer BlackboardPay to our students as a safe
and secure way to access their funds and protect them from banking
fees," said Pratima Gandhi,
controller at Bradley University. "The
new solution helps us promote banking responsibility for our
students and, through the integration with our current campus card,
provide them with a convenient one-card option."
Students at participating institutions can use the prepaid
account integrated with the student ID to make purchases at
millions of Discover merchant locations. Additionally, cardholders
can withdraw cash at the approximately 43,000 ATMs around the world
that bear the Allpoint, Pulse, or STAR® Network logos. Unlike
competing offerings, BlackboardPay lets cardholders make
surcharge-free withdrawals on the Allpoint ATM network, the world's
largest surcharge-free network.
"We are pleased that institutions are realizing one of the major
differences between BlackboardPay and other offerings," said
David Marr, president of Blackboard
Transact. "Specifically, they now understand that while other
offerings can generate as much as 80 percent of their revenue – in
the millions of dollars – from student assessed fees, Blackboard
does not receive a single cent of revenue from student assessed
fees."
Cardholders also have access to a Web site where they can view
recent transactions, sign up for balance notifications, transfer
funds to and from a personal bank account and pay bills online.
They can also use Money Network™ Checks to pay bills or cash the
checks for free at participating Money Network check cashing
locations.
Schools often see savings from a reduction in time and resources
spent processing paper checks. Some institutions have cited labor
savings as an important contributor to internal cost-cutting
measures as they continually seek to find efficiencies and trim
expenses.
"Salt Lake Community College has
been searching for years for an ID/debit card option for its
students, but nothing fit what we were looking for until we heard
about BlackboardPay," said David
Raiford, manager of campus card systems and services at
Salt Lake Community College.
"Our goal was to provide an option for students to receive their
refunds faster and easier, make purchases with their ID card
anywhere, and help minimize operational costs in distributing
refunds. With BlackboardPay, we are able to meet these goals. I
would highly recommend BlackboardPay for any institution's ID/debit
card and refund distribution needs."
For more information about BlackboardPay and Blackboard
Transact, visit www.blackboard.com/transact.
About Blackboard Inc.
Blackboard Inc. (Nasdaq: BBBB) is a global leader in enterprise
technology and innovative solutions that improve the experience of
millions of students and learners around the world every day.
Blackboard's solutions allow thousands of higher education, K-12,
professional, corporate, and government organizations to extend
teaching and learning online, facilitate campus commerce and
security, and communicate more effectively with their communities.
Founded in 1997, Blackboard is headquartered in Washington, D.C., with offices in North America, Europe, Asia
and Australia.
Any statements in this press release about future
expectations, plans and prospects for Blackboard and other
statements containing the words "believes," "anticipates," "plans,"
"expects," "will," and similar expressions, constitute
forward-looking statements within the meaning of The Private
Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Actual results may differ
materially from those indicated by such forward-looking statements
as a result of various important factors, including the factors
discussed in the "Risk Factors" section of our Form 10-K filed
on February 18, 2011 and Form 10-Q
filed on August 4, 2011 with the SEC.
In addition, the forward-looking statements included in this press
release represent the Company's views as of August 15, 2011. The Company anticipates that
subsequent events and developments will cause the Company's views
to change. However, while the Company may elect to update these
forward-looking statements at some point in the future, the Company
specifically disclaims any obligation to do so. These
forward-looking statements should not be relied upon as
representing the Company's views as of any date subsequent to
August 15, 2011.
SOURCE Blackboard Inc.