A prepaid card for students on financial aid is offered by Blackboard Inc.

• Position: NEW PRODUCTS

MORE THAN 120,000 STUDENTS are now participating in BlackboardPay, a prepaid card program that simplifies the delivery of student federal financial aid, says Blackboard Inc., Washington, D.C. By enabling students to receive financial aid on their current student ID cards, BlackboardPay eliminates an estimated S2 million per year in student overdraft and PIN debit fees based on average fees for the total number of students now using the solution.

The solution 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.

Students at participating...