Higher One - Hillsborough Community College

Higher One to Provide Comprehensive Refund Management That Reduce Costs and Increases Customer Service

NEW HAVEN, CT, July 9, 2005 - Higher One, a leading provider of customized financial services dedicated exclusively to the higher education market, today announced that Hillsborough Community College, Tampa, FL, has signed on to use Higher One's OneDisburse^® Refund Management disbursement service. The program enables community colleges and universities to save substantial costs and increase service by having Higher One handles all refund disbursements, related error handling and customer service and provide students with the option of a free FDIC insured checking account called the OneAccount. The school expects to have the program implemented in the Fall 2005 term.

"We are pleased that Hillsborough has chosen Higher One to provide Refund Management at their campus," said Dean Hatton, President and CEO, Higher One. "Community colleges are flourishing nationwide, and many are realizing how Higher One's services can help them become more competitive, save money and provide more services to their diverse, mobile student populations."

Higher One's OneDisburse^® Refund Management disbursement service is ideally suited to meeting the varied needs of community colleges and their students. OneDisburse SM is more than just payments; with it the entire disbursement process is simplified. OneDisburse includes the handling of all disbursements, customer service, error handling, reconciliation and other time consuming functions - eliminating many costs associated with refund delivery for the college and increasing customer service for students. Higher One's service is the only comprehensive Refund Management available today and features no setup costs, minimum involvement with schools' IT systems, and a unique revenue-sharing benefit for the college. With OneDisburse students can choose any of three options to receive financial aid and other refunds: direct deposit to the free OneAccount checking account, ACH to another bank checking account, or a paper check. No matter which method the student uses, Higher One handles the entire process, making the payment and managing any associated errors or customer service needs.

Higher One provides every client with program management and setup services to ease the setup process. Once up and running, Higher One services including the management of student refund preferences; collection and archiving of ACH authorization forms; exception handling; refund returns; rerouting of checks; errors and refund reversals; reconciliation and archiving; customer service; and online reporting of refund statuses.

Higher One offers two versions of its service: OneDisburse ID^SM and OneDisburse^®. OneDisburse ID is a refund management program that is provided with a card that also serves as the Campus ID. The program is fully integrated with the campus card system. OneDisburse is Refund Management that is provided with a co-branded "refund card" that is not integrated with the ID card system. OneDisburse is available to smaller institutions - 5,000 students or fewer - through the non-co-branded "Easy Refund Card" platform.

Higher One has been providing Refund Management to colleges and universities across the US since 2002. Higher One's program at Sam Houston State University in Huntsville, TX generated $240,000 in net cost avoidance in the first semester alone, and after subtracting the initial costs of establishing a card office - produced about $400,000 in gross cost avoidance for the year. The State University of West Georgia and Kennesaw State University have both documented substantial, measurable impacts on the institutional operations and were presented with the "2004 Best Practices Award" for their setup of Higher One's Refund Management disbursement service by the State University System of Georgia Board of Regents.

More than 27 Colleges and Universities across the country have signed with Higher One to use the company's Refund Management. Since September 2002, Higher One has helped its clients disburse almost $700 Million dollars through more than 475,000 individual payments.

About Higher One

Founded in 2000, Higher One provides higher education institutions and their students with efficient, convenient and easy-to-use solutions to handle financial disbursements. These include: student refunds, on-campus and community purchases, payroll and employee expenses, as well as the collection of payments from students, parents, and sponsors.

Higher One offers a suite of online banking services including the OneAccount, an FDIC-insured checking account, and OneCard, a Debit MasterCard^®. To date, Higher One has disbursed over $4 billion dollars in refunds for its clients to more than 1,000,000 students, faculty, and staff at distinguished public and private higher education institutions throughout the country.

Higher One recently ranked # 85 on the 2007 Inc. List of the 500 Fastest Growing Companies in the United States. Higher One is based in New Haven, CT.