Effective July 1, the number of off-campus merchants who will accept Cougar Cash dropped from 32 to 10.

Due to the introduction of the U.S. Bank CougarCard Maxx Visa signature debit card in January 2009, the use of Cougar CASH as a payment will be limited primarily to on-campus locations due to Visa’s non-competition policy.

“We signed the agreement with U.S. Bank following the bid process, and at that point, the contract stipulated that we can’t have an off-campus card program,” said Craig Howard, director of Administrative Services Information Systems for WSU.

The eliminated off-campus businesses were dropped from the program for a reason.

“During the 2009 Spring semester, we negotiated the meaning of ‘on-campus’ with Visa and came to an agreement that would permit merchants in close proximity to or adjoining campus to continue to accept Cougar CASH,” Howard said. “This agreement allowed us to permit the use of Cougar CASH at the merchants on College Hill as well as the Cenex Convenience Store and Sella’s (Calzone & Pizza) restaurant.” When WSU signed the contract with U.S. Bank in 2007, the university agreed on the reduction of off-campus merchants once the CougarCard Maxx Visa would become available, he said.

“The decision to do this was a controversial deal with Visa, the university and U.S. Bank,” said Tim Taylor, information systems coordinator at the CougarCard Center. “This was a Visa thing and not a U.S. Bank or university issue.” Visa’s non-competition policy dictated the removal of the 22 off-campus merchants from the program, Howard said.

Despite the elimination of more than two-thirds of the off-campus CougarCard participants, Howard said positives do stem from the amendment.

“During the 2008-2009 academic year, 5,763 students, faculty and staff used Cougar CASH at off-campus merchant locations,” he said. “The CougarCard Maxx card expands the usefulness of the CougarCard to merchants worldwide. By September 2009, we will have issued approximately 2,000 CougarCard Maxx cards.” The ways in which the new Visa card expands the usefulness of the CougarCard is through its versatility, CougarCard Center Manager David Aichele said.

“The new CougarCard Maxx is accepted at any location that accepts Visa, whereas the old CougarCard was accepted at a limited number of merchants, so we expanded the options,” he said.

Aichele explained the functionality of the new card. The CougarCard Maxx Visa is a pilot program with WSU, U.S. Bank and Visa. The card serves as a university identification card, a debit card and a CougarCard all rolled into one, he said.

Because the contract was signed in 2007, they could not have foreseen the current budget crisis.

“The decisions that led to the reduction in the number of off-campus locations accepting Cougar CASH were made prior to the recent state budget problems,” Howard said.

As for the negative effects for businesses and students, Howard said neither will experience a significant sting.

“The change in the number of merchants that can accept Cougar CASH probably won’t impact Pullman businesses in any large manner,” he said. “The use of Cougar CASH at the off-campus merchant locations actually declined a little during the 2008-2009 academic year.” Howard attributed the decline to students’ increased use of debit cards instead of transferring funds to Cougar CASH.

In terms of notification, Howard said on June 22, 15,219 individuals who used Cougar CASH in the Pullman community at on and off-campus locations received a message via myWSU. The announcement indicated changes in the number of locations accepting Cougar CASH. If students are not satisfied with the program’s changes, Howard said individuals can request a refund at any time.

Though a number of off-campus merchants were let go, 10 will remain with the program along with about 40 other on-campus businesses, Howard said.