March 29, 2024

The enhanced Conestoga College student card, also dubbed the One Card, ran into a few problems early this semester, but, for the most part, has since cleared up these small hiccups.

Earlier this fall, students were occasionally having issues with their One Cards with regard to depositing funds onto the convenient alternative to the slew of cards most students have had to carry in their wallets. However, in a previously published article by Spoke News, Andrea De Vito, manager of One Card, assured students that this was a rare occurrence and, if instances like those did pop up, they were, more often than not, quickly resolved.

Many students are still not aware of the different functions their One Card has to offer and think it is nothing more than a run-of-the-mill student card.

A student chooses their One Card over a traditional payment option, Kitchener, Ont., on Oct. 11, 2018. Photo by Matthew Nowell, Spoke News

“I honestly never even thought twice about it,” said Harman Goyal, an engineering student at Conestoga. “I thought it was just a student card, like in high school.”

The One Card is much more than just a student card, however, if used to its full potential. The card can be used as a form of currency at many locations on or nearby campus.

Not only can students load funds onto the student card, but there are also incentives and perks offered at a number of business locations across the college’s campuses that make using the One Card a lot more beneficial than using traditional debit or credit cards at school.

“I’d heard about the issues some students were having when depositing money on to their One Cards,” said Billy Kambo of the public health program at Conestoga. “I’ve always thought about loading some funds on to mine. It seems like it would be pretty convenient.”

Less than 10 per cent of students at Conestoga use their One Card with its intended use and actually load funds onto it, leaving a lot of room for growth for the school’s student card.

In addition to the many financial perks the One Card offers, the college has often had contests in place, where, if students load on a certain amount of money onto their cards, they are eligible to win prizes such as phone cases and even iPads.

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