This bank stole $2830 from me' They never sent me an email and i called them to tell them money was being transferred from my account illegally. When I logged into my account, I had 2,830 stolen and they say they don't see anything wrong and wont give me back my money read more

I too would give HigherOne no stars if i could. I had my paycheck deposited into their account and lost my atm card. After calling in and cancelling the other card, they sent me out another one. This time with an on-campus only restriction. I was stuck without cash for over 2 weeks and ultimately lost out on my condo because I could not pull the money out. Their wire transfer service doesn't work, neither do their support team reply to support questions. I cancelled my billpay (well i thought I did) which higherone charged me $24 to do... only to get a returned check in the mail from my creditor because they address was wrong. I had paid to stop billpay and higherone continued sending bill-payments to this dormant account. Shame on you Higherone. read more

Higher One just lost a class action suit for charging students and customers excessive fee. I rest my case. read more

This company's policies and fee schedules prey on college students who are given no option to receive their loan and grant refunds unless they open an account. Although, technically, you can just accept a check from the school, this often takes 2 months after the refund has been issued for you to receive it. However, you can receive it sooner if you choose to just deposit in the higher one debit card account, where they charge you fee after fee for using your own money, and if you want to wire transfer the money from this account that you don't even want to your real bank account, it is a $25 penalty. Then, when you don't use the account, they penalize you for that too. Also, beware, account transfers, if you want to transfer from higher one account to your real bank account, carries a 3.5% penalty. For instance, if you want to transfer $1000 from the higher one account to your Wells Fargo savings and walk into a Wells Fargo branch, to do it, Higher one will charge you $35 to do it. If however, you wire transfer the cash from the higher one account to your Wells Fargo checking account using the higher one website, it's a flat rate of $25. This company is unethical, predatory and is moving to monopolize college student banking. For more information about their unethical business practices read these articles. http://defendyourdollars.org/posts/98-college_students__warnings_about_the_higher_one_card http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/07/20/higher-one-to-pay-fine-for-fees_n_1690491.html http://blog.oregonlive.com/finance/2010/09/higher_one_debit_card_fees_at.html If you can avoid this company, do! read more

HigherOne is a predatory, fee-infested excuse for a financial institution. Swipe your card? Fee. Lost your card? Another fee, EVEN BY REGULAR MAIL! Want to transfer your money from their sinkhole of an account, to a legitimate account? Fee! Leave your account alone for a month? FEE! I have no idea why this company is allowed to pull these stunts. I just move the money to my USAA account asap. (which, by the way HigherOne, has no atm fees, no transfer fees, no inactivity fees, and stellar customer service.) read more

Never had I had to deal with such an awful institution. I am a student and I am taking a year off to replenish my savings. However if I am not in school they charge me 5 dollars a month. Not to mention the total lack of ATMs, the 8 dollar ATM fee (from them. not the ATM... my bank refunds me the ATM fee... LOVE Homestreet) and the dozen or so odd just f****ng random a** charges they can think up. Getting the account was a pain in of itself. The worst of it is their customer service. not the people in the customer call center mind you. Those poor souls picked a horrific company to work for. No i'm talking about the half dozen loops you have to jump through to just talk to one person. this is insane. If I could rate them zero stars I would. IF YOU ARE A STUDENT WAIT FOR A REFUND CHECK. DO NOT GO THROUGH HIGHER ONE. STAY AWAY. STAY VERY FAR AWAY. read more

This is a SCAM! it is very hard to get your money out of a higher one account. my daughter tried to use online bill pay to have a paper check sent to me to reimburse me for her college courses. guess what? no check! her account is zero and we are both out over $1600.00! PARENT & STUDENT WARNING: DO NOT USE HIGHER ONE FOR RECEIVING FINANCIAL AID!!!! read more

WOW! I had an issue with the card being sent to my address too. Now I'm worried about how my education is going to turn out. 18 reviews this company has, and not a single one of them is more than ONE star. This both shocks and awes me that the company doesn't feel it needs to do a revamp of customer services. Well the next four years will be an utter disaster working with higher one or really good. I'll keep you posted. read more

The first time I transferred money to this bank from my bank it took just one day. However, the next time I transferred money, it took 6 days. There were no holidays in between. It was roughly the same amount and same bank. The customer service at this bank is poor. They recommend using Twitter, so I did. They replied promptly and asked me to DM them info, so I did. However, a day or two later, I contacted them on Twitter again and they acted like I never spoke to them. Although this bank helps some students and accepts student loans, they don't seem to be very together or consistent. read more

When i was in college of NJ, they just sent the refund in checks. all i need to do is deposit the check to my account. SIMPLE AND EASY. After i transfer to current college in FL, they sent me the higher one debit card, and put my refund in there. Every month they charge me monthly fee, When i use the card they charged me $0.50 every transaction, i asked the cashier to put it as "credit". so i don't have to enter the PIN to avoid the $0.50 transaction, but it automatically goes to "Debit" . It really dont make sense, I felt like SCAM. Why don't the college send me refund in check to save all the complications! read more

This bank is fucking garbage. They sent me a notice saying that my account had been compromised, it went in my spam folder. When I logged into my account, I was $99,000 in the hole! Try calling them? No answer. Or a message, "Your approximate wait time will be...3 hours." To verify my identity, I have to pay for a notary. I am so suing the fuck out of these people. If I could kill every single last one of them, I would. These are the people that our schools put in charge of our loan disbursements. Then they expect that we're supposed to clean up their mess when our accounts get hacked? I use a 24 character password that I change once a month. I NEVER take the debit card they issued me out of the house unless it's in a metallic wallet. Next step: I am forwarding this issue to an attorney and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau! read more

"All For You"? I think the slogan should be "All For Us." Terrible services ESPECIALLY for college students. They have the most ridiculous fees. So I am just canceling my card and having MY financial aid money (not theirs since they seem to act like I'm borrowing money from them) transferred to my personal bank account with Chase where they don't charge 50 cents for every time you use their card. I was forced into their program because my school uses them. My first class is almost over with and I JUST received my card that was suppose to be here a month ago. I called them to see where my card was since their tracking services didn't work and all they did was tell me to contact my school. So I contact my school and they tell me to contact Higher One since the school does nothing but send my information over. This was on-going for WEEKS. read more

Can I give negative star? Or at least none? I don't understand why my school have business with these people. They're horrible. It's been a month since school started, they gave me two cards, I called in which one do I use and what should I do. They deactivated one, and said use the other one, either way I try putting in my info. Apparently my info (Social, email, and address was incorrect) of course I called in for service, about 30 min wait and they said it matches but apparently it was Google chrome fault, try Firefox, they all the browsers. I called again because I used a different computer and followed instructions after 10 mins speaking with the customer service. I told him my situation and he said the browsers shouldn't be an issue and they would do their best to resolve the issue. BASICALLY. Customer service do their best to avoid assisting, you have to wait for a long time for service. You shouldn't consider anything with these people. read more

If -1 were an option that's what I would give Higher One. I dread having to actually call this place. Be prepared to deal with incompetent employees and handing over all your personal information...several times over. your looking at least a 20 minute wait as these people try to navigate through a system that is always "down". read more

Despite the "reply" (aka straight up lies) to my original review -- HigherOne continues to hold money of mine to this VERY DAY from funds that were originally supposed to be distributed before October 2014. How do I know this? They keep sending me e-mails asking me to select a "preference" to receive my funds despite the fact they know I have already asked they send it as a check. To find a company that is similarly morally bankrupt you probably have to start e-mailing ISIS in the middle east and ask if they provide banking services for college students. read more

They are absolutely horrible!!!!! My card was frauded and they canceled it as soon as it occured which was fine however I am located in NYC where there is no higher one near me since I graduated. I had to speak with someone over 2 hours while at work to get a card overnighted however it was never done. I called again on Friday, Saturday and finally today to find out they mailed it through regular mail and it will not be here for 5-7 business days. I can not reach my money or pay for any of my bills do to this horrible company. As soon as I get my card I am getting a Bank of America account or Chase ASAP! Do not open an account with this company they are truly horrible! read more

Rated 1 star only because they don't have an option to go negative.They froze my account because of a "suspicious call" never notifying me. I tried to use ATM to find I had a -$999,999.00 balance. This was June 5th. It is now July 30th, and after countless calls, emails, forms filed, passwords changed, new cards sent, I still can not access my account. I get one run a round after the next. Please get your money out of their banks now, before its to late. Find a bank you can trust...this isn't it. read more

I received a letter from HigherOne in the mail with an unactivated debit card and instructions on how to get my refund through their website. Based on the extremely negative reviews of the company, I would have preferred to receive my refund as a check through the mail, but that is not an option. I did not agree with their terms for activating an account with them (Ridiculous fees and lack of access to their ATM's in my area), so I decided to deposit my refund to my normal bank account. The process is fairly straightforward, I just needed to dig up my checkbook to find the routing and account numbers they requested. After I inputted this information and clicked "continue" to finish the transfer to my account, a red box appeared at the top of the page, reading "ATTENTION We are currently unable to process your request. Please try again in 10 minutes." Over the course of an hour and a half, I have been resubmitting my information but the same box keeps popping up. I have tried starting over, using a checking rather than savings account, and searching for help using their EasyHelp tool, but I have not had success. I get the feeling that HigherOne simply does not want me to put the money into an account that I already control and trust, and they are coercing me into forming an account with them so they can charge me exorbitant fees. I also feel the need to note that this company was investigated by the FDIC in 2012 for "violating college students' consumer rights" and has recently been investigated by the Federal Reserve as well ( http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/04/10/higher-one-investigation_n_5121285.html ). I am not pleased that I am being forced into dealing with an abusive, dishonest company that doesn't care about the students it services and makes a great deal of money by charging us unnecessary fees for services already provided to us by our normal banks. read more

Financial aid has been the worst part about going back to school. These people have done nothing but condescend me. I'm waiting on a card I ordered a while ago, First call: We can't do anything about the card Second call: If today is the due date just give a bit Third: We don't do anything regarding your card. Call somewhere else. They were anything but helpful, and I still have no money for books and school. read more

$20 to get a new debit card, other banks FREE. No option to transfer to another bank, unless you wire transfer for a 25$ fee. Isn't Higher One supposed to be helping out POOR students? read more

So, I finally get my money deposited to my Higher One account, and there are so many hidden FEES that I pay the $25 to transfer the money to my bank. THEY DON'T BOTHER MENTIONING that it is NOT immediate. It can take days! They totally led me to believe I would have my money in my bank today. I am sad there are so many negative reviews and that our federal money is still being put here. I don't appreciate not being able to have full access to my funds as CASH all at once. GET THE PAPER CHECK or deposit your refund into your bank account! This setup is a joke. read more

They are the worst financial company in the world. Their customer service personnel work from home so when you give your social security number and other personal information, you aren't just giving it to someone that could use that information later...you are giving it to someone who is not being overseen by a supervisor or manager who can ensure they are doing everything as they should. They have caused me so many issues from not being able to use my funds or change my direct deposit information just because I called and told them that I lost my card. Even worse they have locked my account for "potential fraud" and are making me go to a notary (which costs money) and get a document signed, later to have to mail it in and then await further instructions. I think there needs to be another company handling college money. An actual bank would suffice! These people don't know what they are doing and if you need help, be ready to be on the phone for a long time only to finish the call with no resolution! As soon as I have my account unlocked I will be switching my direct deposit to my Wells Fargo bank! This company sucks! read more

Working with Higher One to get my college refund has been a complete nightmare. I have been sent two checks, neither or which arrived, and been sent 3 "debit cards" so that I can open an account THAT I DON'T EVEN WANT TO OPEN. Then, when I'm able to open the account that I was FORCED to open, I will have to pay a $25 wiring fee to get it into my Wells Fargo account. Because I have had so many problems trying to get things mailed to me, and they refuse to mail it to the school so I can just pick it up there, I have had to try several addresses. Every time I try a different address, I have to go to the university's website, print out an address change form, scan it, send it back, and then wait for the university to update my address with Higher One. When I called Higher One asking about my check and why there's so many problems getting it to me, the customer service agent- Tamika - kept telling me to call the post office and confirm my address. I kept insisting to her that I was looking at my apartment's lease & receive mail there daily from every other person I've given my address to, so I'm pretty confident my address is correct. Her response to that was that she recommends I call the post office and confirm my address. ARE YOU KIDDING ME? ARE YOU DEAF? This was a supervisor, too. Luckily the manager, Teresa, is competent and has actually been helpful. She might be the singular bright spot in the entire company. I'm sure Higher One is loving all the time it is taking to get me my money since they clearly love making the interest off their money on hand (which is why they make you wait the maximum time before issuing checks). Meanwhile, I'm PAYING interest on my credit card balance waiting for you to do what should be a fairly simple task. But, if you efficiently mail out the checks, I guess you'll make less money off my money, so, there really is no incentive for you all to fix your inefficient, backwards and antiquated processes is there? I wish I could give you 0 stars. Better yet, I pray that you get sued for unethical practices so I can laugh at you and let out a vindicated "Serves them right." IF YOU CAN AVOID THEM, DO IT. Thanks. read more

Screw Higher One. If you have any chance to avoid using this company, I urge you to do so. I have had the worst customer service experience with this bank than any I have ever dealt with. They blatantly lie over the phone to avoid the issue you are calling about, and when it turns out that what they lied about is obvious they just hang up on you. Do not get your federal student loan handled by them. Do not use them for personal banking. They are impersonal and obviously uncaring, since they do not respond to any form of contact. My 2c. read more

This company is scamming young people out of money who need it the most. My daughter's direct deposit has been sent to the wrong account and no one knows where it is over a month later. I plan on doing everything I can to let officials at her school know what a mess of a company this is. read more

These folks have moved into providing debit cards and starter checking accounts for college students. Financial Aid and loans can be funded directly to these accounts. My personal experience with them on a new account is sub-par. They put a 9 business day hold on a government issued paycheck; which is considered a next-day item per banking regulations. I brought this to their attention. The customer service people I dealt with were seemingly outsourced and had no idea what I was talking about. After being transferred to another person, I ended up having a ticket opened on my behalf to see about getting the funds released. A response within 24-48 hours was promised; yet there was nothing. The fees on the account seem to be okay, just don't use the PIN -- $0.50 each transaction if you do. Other fees on the account seem to be on par with other smaller banks. They do have one nice feature where you can scan a check front and back and deposit that way. Overall however, my initial experience with them and not following Federal Reserve regulations regarding deposits is alarming. Not to mention failed follow-up. I have little confidence in this institution functioning as a primary bank due to these types of issues. read more

I would highly suggest NEVER getting a HigherOne card. Emphasis on HIGHLY. The fees they charge per use of your "debit" card are ridiculous. $1.50 per transaction. I finally wised up and ditched the card, and just got my student loans directly put into my bank account. These guys are a bunch of crooks. I contacted the Upper Iowa (I'm a soon-to-be Upper Iowa graduate) Blue Peacock Card HigherOne office that is local to speak to them.... as usual, no response. read more

Horrible "banking institution" -- if you can even call it that. Essentially, they hold your money hostage and force you to pay a ransom any time you need your money. Not only that, but your school's financial aid office has the ability to take back the money and steal it out of your account. The second I get my money I pull every penny I can out, even if it does cost me. WORST EVER. read more

I'm so happy I'm not the only that had horrible experience with higher one. If I could I would also give higher one customer service a 0. I had no choice but get higher one through my university. I recommend to anyone NOT TO GET HIGHER ONE. Too bad I can't give it 0. read more

Worst experience ever. My son still hasn't received his financial aid, and the ongoing delay (well over 2 weeks) is hurting us. We cannot meet our obligations on time, thus costing us more money in the long run. If I didn't have a credit card, he would have to drop out of school. This sort of financial problem, coupled with reckless customer service, is a big issue for someone who just turned 18. HO's FB page on dispersement says they will contact you if there is a problem, but when my son asked why they didn't contact him when unable to verify his ID, he was told that it was HIS responsibility to call them. That is ridiculous. He talked to the school about the problem, they told him to contact Higher One. He talked to Higher One, again, this morning. After all the calls he's made, now they say the school hasn't dispersed the money yet!!! I don't believe it. It was scheduled to be dispersed September 3. That was over 2 weeks ago! It would be so helpful to know when money is coming for those families who are already hurting but need to go deeper to support their student indefinitely until money comes. Higher One should not be in business with higher education. Here's their FB page on dispersement: https://www.facebook.com/notes/higher-one/all-about-refunds/10150241946922135 read more

This institution deserves a a negative star if yelp had that option. They have so many fees and they're so expensive. I went to my local bank today to deposit some money I got out of their ATM's at no charge and I ask my teller how much it would be to transfer money over and she told me on my local banks end it's $25 but I could use my Higher One card in person at no charge and that it's likely I'll get a charge by Higher one. I figured it would be less then $25 but that wasn't the case. Higher One charged 3.5% on a $2000 transfer which is $70, you would think it would have capped out at $25 or something but they're crooks with so many hidden fees all over the place. The only way to use their service is to withdraw money from their ATM's on campus then drive that cash over to your bank but personally I don't like carrying that much cash on me I'm a starving college student for goodness sake. Also I went on their site to see if I could transfer the rest of my money over and I could't find out what the fees were so I'm just going to call them in the morning to cancel my account which they'll send out a check that'll likely take forever "wish me luck". Update. In the process of asking them to change this ridiculously high 3.5% "Teller Transfer Fee" to just be a $25 wire transfer they initially were reluctant to do so stating I knew what I was going to be charged but I in fact had no idea until I got an email telling me about the fee last night. To make a long story short Jessica ended up doing a "one time" waiving of the fee of the total $70 to help me out and both her and the other lady I talked to were very friendly and professional. On customer service alone I'd give them 5 stars but they do have all types of fees which they did in fact waive this one for me which will come in handy with Christmas around the corner. read more

This company is absolutely HORRIBLE!!!!!!! If i could give them a million negative stars I would. I have been mailed two cards and a check that i have STILL not received and neither of them can be tracked (because apparently that's not a thing). I frequently get emails that instruct me to choose a refund option that i have NO WAY of setting up without these imaginary cards they claimed to have sent me. After hunting online for their help service number, WHICH ISN'T EVEN ON THEIR WEBSITE, I finally talked to someone. I was basically told that if i never receive anything in the mail them it would just be RESENT again and again until i received it. They have no way of depositing my money into my current bank account so i am forced to open an account that I DO NOT WANT! The representatives are absolutely NO help! definitely a waste of time having them there because in no way, shape, or form could these people actually be helpful. I have no idea if i will EVER receive my refund. I sincerely hope this company BURSTS INTO FLAMES so no one will ever have to deal with the frustration i am going through. I & many of my fellow classmates will be contacting our university and letting them know what a disgusting decision it was and will ever be to have anything to do with this company. read more

I'm really surprised by all the negative reviews! I have had nothing but good experiences with Higher One, actually out of all the nationally known banks Higher One (WEX Bank) is actually one of my favorite banks! I haven't been charged any fees, and most importantly customer service is great! read more

I filed a report with the BBB and called for two days straight. This is the worst experience I have ever had dealing with my financial aid. I'm sure they are getting interest on the money and the longer they hold it, the more they make. Unfortunately I am paying interest to have this money. It's just another way to screw over a college student. read more

I'm a student receiving money from the government, and HigherOne has 1) kept my money, 2) made online and communication near impossible, 3) charging me fees, time, and stress (I'm young, I don't understand this stuff) to only transfer my own money into a bank that I use, and 4) they cancelled my account after hours of dealing with them, because they thought it'd protect me from id theft. Sallie-Mae is comparable. As I write this review I have been on hold for 22 minutes and counting. She is, "looking up some information about me." I personally take this as an insult. read more

Where do I even start with this crappy "bank". I am an online student that made the mistake of choosing to get my financial aid refund put on this card. I don't live near the school and the nearest college is 25 minutes away. I use an atm to take out MY money and am charged $2.50 for using the atm. They only allow you to take out $500 daily through the atm,so you pretty much end up getting charged $5. Forget trying to go inside a bank and get a "cash advance" because the tellers are so lost on how to get money off this card. oh yeah, and prepare to lose about $30 of your money for trying to take your money to your regular bank. Yesterday, I was charged $5 in fees for using the atm a day I'm sure I just got charged another $5 for getting my money out again. tried to ask for a fee refund,but they refused. Also had an employee at customer service # tell me that I should FLY to the school I attend and use their atm. really? you speak to customers this way? I hate this bank !!!! read more

I had higher one for some time and they weren't terrible...until this past year. They charge $5.95 a month for their "premier" service which they claim you're supposed to get VIP level customer service. By VIP level customer care, they must mean being transferred to some call center in the Phillipines that doesn't give a f*** about you and can't speak proper English. I got transferred to a "supervisor" and she was a complete moron who i had to explain myself 3 times to in order to get her to understand what my issue was. Then after all that she did nothing to resolve the problem. She not only sounded 12 years old.....she also had roughly the same English vocabulary as someone that age. This wasn't the case in the past. Usually I got someone who was a native English speaker and they'd actually try and help you resolve issues instead of just finding ways to avoid helping you. Now I'm getting the same incompetent people that non paying account holders have been dealing with. They must having major financial problems to outsource ALL their customer service overseas, and then charge you money under the illusion you're going to get real help. What USA based financial institution does that???? I've never dealt with a bank that somewhere a long the chain of command you can't actually get someone not in a call center in the Phillipines or India. What a joke. Don't park a dime with these people. read more

I hate this so called suppose to help us with are financial aide but robs us. Why do we need to pay to get financial aide then super charge us fees. Then I joined F*** higher one on Facebook. The students on that page gave me ways to move around from using higher one. read more

This bank institution has rejected our address for unknown reason and due to this my child has not received his funds since October. The school and this bank has gotten into a pointing fingers at each other game to keep the funds and make interest from it.This is ridiculous!! i can not believe this is allowed. read more

This company is absolutely ridiculous. I am having the exact same problem with them that I had last semester. My school released my refund to higher one in the morning and it is 8 p.m. and I stillhave not received my money from this ridiculous company. I advise everyone to report your problems with this company to the BBB. We can only get rid of them if we ban together. read more