Weis Markets (Shoppes at Maxatawny) is our Merchant of the Week!

KU CARD: Home of the KU ID Card and Bear Bucks!

One Card: For Merchants

So many times, a student leaves his/her residence hall with nothing but their KU ID -- they need that to get back into the hall. Then they find you. You have something they simply must have, but all they have with them is the KU ID.

A faculty member has just barely a half hour for lunch, but they left their wallet in the office. They do, however, have their KU ID with them because it's also the key to that office.

No worries! If you're a Bear Bucks merchant partner, you can just swipe that card through your Verifone Vx570 and make a sale that might have slipped by!

How it works

A faculty/staff member, student or his/her family deposits funds onto the KU ID card into a Bear Bucks account. Those funds are available to the cardholder immediately by swiping his/her card.

When you make a sale, the customer presents his/her card to you. You check to make sure the photo on the card matches the person using it, then swipe it through your Verifone Vx570. The funds are debited from the account, and the reader prints two receipts: one for you and one for the customer. You have the customer sign your receipt. Done!

If the customer does not have enough funds in the account to make the purchase, it will be declined. There is no chance of overdraft because the account is prepaid, and you have the extra added security of a photo ID for verification.

At the end of the reimbursement period (your choice of a week or a month), Kutztown University sends you a full accounting of your sales for the period with a check for the total sales minus a small commission.

Alcohol

If you sell alcohol, you must agree to submit to a random audit of receipts each semester to make sure no alcohol was paid for with Bear Bucks.

What are the benefits to my business?

Part of this program is gaining closer access to KU students and their families. Some students have no source of funds other than Bear Bucks, and that means they'll come to you.

As part of the merchant agreement, the One Card Office promotes our off-campus partners on campus with advertisements on the Student Union TVs, face-to-face contact and presentations with students and their families at orientation sessions, and our Merchant of the Week program, where we put the spotlight on a single merchant for a week on our web site, Facebook and Twitter feeds, and Student Union TVs. If you have a great idea for a joint promotion, let us know! We'd love to work with you!

Bear Bucks gives you access to a safe, convenient payment method for our students. They can manage their funds online, but never need to worry about overdraft fees. Parents rest easy knowing that their underage students aren't purchasing alcohol with Bear Bucks. You reap the benefits with more secure sales with a prepaid photo-ID debit account, more exposure to KU folks, and access to funds and customers you might have missed.

Sign me up!

The entire contract package is contained in this zip file. Please take some time to look it over and see if Bear Bucks is right for your business. When you're ready to join us, fill everything out -- we need to have every page of every document -- and send it or bring it back to us (or call us and we'll pick it up). It takes some time to wend its way through the necessary bureaucracy, so please allow 3 weeks from submission of the contract to beginning of service.

We look forward to working with you!