Prepaid Debit Cards for Students and Third-Parties

This program allows departments to pay for qualifying student and other third-party (non-employee) travel, gifts, prizes and awards using a prepaid Visa card.

On this page:

Program Description

This program may be used for various purposes for students and other non-employees, anyone with a current paid appointment is not eligible:

Travel

 Meal Allowances (per diems) for students, guests and candidates.

Gifts, Prizes and Awards

  • Gifts as incentive to individuals (not human subjects) for their participation in surveys, volunteering or other university programs. Participation that have a clear business purpose and support the mission of the university.
  • Consideration to students for services provided to the university for volunteer work or requested university programing. The student's contribution must directly support the mission of the university and be tied to a university initiative.
  • Awards as part of a competition.  The competition must directly support the mission of the university and be tied to a university initiative.
Student Travel

A new way to help our students when traveling.

Program Details
 
 

Program 1: Reloadable Card

Anonymous:

Name not printed on card, but personal information is collected to register

Type of Card:

Physical, plastic card

Reloadable with Additional Funds:

Yes

Replaceable if Lost:

Yes

Technology Required to Activate:

Email address, access to the Internet, or phone

Information Required to Register:

First name, last name, physical mailing address (can be campus address)

SSN Required*:

No

Taxable Income Reporting Form Required*:
No

Release of Funds:

Instant

Cash Access:

Yes (ATM fees apply)

Where to Use:

ATM, anywhere Visa Credit or Debit cards are accepted (in-person and online)

Initial Cost per Card:

No cost

Cost of Replacement Card:

No cost

Inactivity Fee:
$2.00 per month after 365 days of no activity
Monthly Maintenace Fee:
Does not apply

*In general, the SSN isn’t required, however, if there are prize payments of $600 or more in a calendar year then the SSN will be required at that point via completion of the W-9 or W-8 tax form.

Who is Eligible

State and Research Funding (Sponsored (with approval) and Non-Sponsored) can be used for this program.

How to Apply to the Program

Have the Following Documents Ready When Applying
  1. US Bank Advance Request Form (if Sponsored Project is used)
  2. Completed Prepaid Debit Card Template

The following information must be provided through the application process:

  • Department Contact Information (Name, Email, Phone Number)
  • Type of expense needed (Student Meal Allowance, Recruitment, Prize)
  • Expenditure Details (Account number to charge, Itinerary )
  • Payment Information (Total dollar amount of request and number of cards)

Apply For Gifts, Prizes and Awards

To apply provide the below requested information to the card programs team.

  1. Details as to what these payments are for (i.e. Survey participant, Volunteering) and how it corresponds to the allowable use of funds and the Gifts, Prizes and awards policy
  2. IFR (State) or Research Foundation Account Number (Sponsored or Non-Sponsored)
  3. Total  amount of Funding requested
  4. Names of individuals who need cards issued to them
  5. Address to be assigned to the cards – This may be the individual’s home address or a main departmental address
  6. A list of the funding to be applied to each of the cards ( this step can be repeated each month once the users have cards registered to them)
Taxable

Please note that any payments totaling over $600 in a calender year for U.S Citizens and any payments to Non-Resident Aliens (NRA) are taxable.  Please upload the nessary tax forms (W-9 or W-8) into the UB Secure Tax Forms Box.

Meal Allowances

To Determine Per Diem Amount

  •  Dates of Travel (itinerary)
  • City stayed in (Logged in)
  • Will any group meals be provided? (i.e. a copy of the agenda can be provided for this)

complete the transfer and load the card

  • UB Account to pull the funding from (State IFR or Research Account can be used)
  • Student Full name
  • Address – This can be the students local address or the departments address

Provide information after the trip (in lieu of individual receipts)

  1. Copy of paid lodging receipt
  2. Copy of Agenda

Next Steps

After submitting the form, the information will be reviewed by Financial Management staff and the following steps will take place:

  1. Financial Management will work to process the funds transfer from your account to US Bank.
  2. Financial Management Staff will register and load the cards for you.
  3. Financial Management staff will contact you once your card is loaded to schedule a time to come and pick up cards (photo ID required).

Reconciliation Process

 There are mutiple reports avaliable to assist with the reconcilation process within the application:

  • Account Reconciliation Report : Provides a high level summary of the debits and credits within the account.
  • Card Account Detailed Report: This report provides detailed information related to the cards associated with the account. It shows registered card total and detailed information on registered cards such as Card account number, card id number (actual card number), name, address, registration date, employee id number (PTA account number).
  • Card Load Report: This report provides detailed information on card loads; total number of loads, total value of loads, name, employee id, load date, etc.

Research Funds

For sponsored awards: PIs are required to provide monthly reconciliation documents to the Sponsored Project Services (SPS) Award Analyst.

For non-sponsored awards: PIs are required to provide monthly reconciliation documents to the Non-Sponsored Group.

These reconciliations are completed centrally on a monthly basis and provided to departments as requested.

State Funds

Will be completed centrally and provided to departments as requested.

Any funds unspent can be returned to the account which funded the card upon request.

Contact an Expert

Valerie Dennis.

Valerie Dennis

Asset Management, Card Programs and eProcurement

Financial Management

Phone: 716-645-2604

Email: vlb5@buffalo.edu

Ragland, Kevin.

Kevin Ragland

Procurement Card Administration, Financial Management

Related Forms, Policies and Links

Links

Forms