The Ramsey Center application has been a source of interest by many other schools across the country. These readers have been used by Food Services for more than 25 years. Testing of the vending stripe feature of the UGACard began last summer. Don stated that this feature is purely a vending stripe, not a debit stripe. Money is not held in an individual account for each patron.
Money is on the card.
If the card is lost or the vending stripe damaged, the money is lost and cannot be retrieved. Fortunately, these problems have not been a common occurrence. Don explained that the transaction of adding and removing money from the card is an anonymous transaction. Value adding stations have been placed throughout campus to make it convenient for students to add money to their cards. Money can also be added at copiers that take coins and bills such as in the Music School and the libraries.